The Job Offer
by loki1216
Summary: Matt has to decide if he wants to accept the job offer in a small town in Maine. One year from now, Matt has to deal with the latest of Mr. Hyde's plans. Set after Season 7 of Vampire Diaries and after Season 5 of Once upon A Time.
1. Chapter 1

One year from now

"C'mon, run that stop sign. You know you want to."

Lilly Pages watches as the station wagon approaches the stop sign from the comfort of her sheriff's car. With hope in heart and glee in her mind, she watches as the old station wagon approaches the stop sign. Giving someone a ticket at 12:30 in the morning is the only excitement that she wants on the clear starry night. To her disappointment, she watches as the beaten up wagon stops at the intersection.

"C'mon!" yells Lilly at the car even though she knew very well that no one in that old wagon would hear her. In fact, they did not even see her. She is parked a block away from the intersection.

Lilly leans back in her car seat as she watches the station wagon continues on its way.

"Seriously. This town can be so boring sometimes." remarks Lilly.

Lilly looks around in her car to see nothing to entertain herself. While she had her cell phone with her, she also knows that she has only thirty percent left on the battery. With only eight hours remaining in her shift and no car charger in the car, Lilly wants to preserve some life in that phone. Her stomach decides now is a perfect time to add to her misery by growling at her.

She opt to turn on the radio to take her mind off of her stomach. The radio blasts some current pop singer trying to sing about some bad boy that did not love her.

Lilly rather hears the silence of the night as she turns the radio off. She starts to fidget her necklace that she is wearing.

Lilly has become something that she never expected to be: She is a pillar of the community. She is a deputy for Storybrooke, a small town with a huge secret that no one outside the town lines would know.

If you told her seven years ago that she would be someone respectable, Lilly would have laugh. She was a waitress that was trying to stay legit although she did not hesitated in stealing someone's wallet when she did not have enough for the rent. She even faked her own death. Not the ideal person to be considered for a position in law enforcement.

Now she is wearing a deputy uniform, is carrying a firearm legally, and is carrying a badge. The Anti-Savior and former thief assigns to protect and to serve the small town and the citizens that lives here.

Nope. It still did not compute in Lilly's head.

Like most job, being a deputy did have its downside. Tonight, she has the night shift. If nothing weird happens, town becomes a quiet peaceful place. For her, it becomes a boring place to patrol.

The only problem with this town is the fact that it had only two setting: Peaceful and boring or chaotic and brutal.

Neither options is what Lilly wants.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Of course, the knocking on her patrol car's window did scare her out of her seat.

"What the?" She turns around to see a person holding a pizza box in his hands. Without any hesitation, she unlocks the door. It could be Jack the Ripper outside her car, but holding a pizza box trumps everything. She forgot to eat before her shift.

The guy opens up the car door and gets into the car. Lilly, slightly relieved that it is not Jack the Ripper, takes the box out of his hand and opens it up. It is a large hot pizza with everything on it. Lilly smiles at the sight.

"Hello, handsome!" said Lilly.

"Hello to you, too." said Matthew Donovan as he closes the car door.  
"I was talking to the pizza." Lilly lays the box on her lap and takes a slice of pizza and shoves it in her mouth.

"I figured." said the Matt as he smiles.

"Wmph amp yap moinginm mere?" said Lilly with a mouthful of pizza.

"Chew your food before you talk, Lilly." said Matt as he chuckles at the sight. The brown haired woman, while is attractive, did have some habits that Matt did not like. Speaking with food in her mouth is one of them.

Lilly proceeds to chew her food to Matt's amusement. Matt Donovan is the only person in the town that did not look at her with suspicion. He also did not let her get away with anything. It helps that he did not come from this town so he did not have anything to go on when it comes to the people living in this town. He can have an objective view about this town and its people.

It explains why he was the one that wanted her to be his partner.

Unlike Lilly, Matthew Donovan is the sheriff in StoryBrooke.

"I said, what are you doing here?" said Lilly as she finishes up her slice. "Aren't you on vacation?"  
"Long story short. It sucks." said Matt as his smile disappears from his face.

"What happened?" asks Lilly.

"Same crap, different year." said Matt as he takes a slice from the pizza. Lilly could hear a bit of venom in his tone. The happy face is replaced by a brooding look, which is very foreign on him even with a slice of joyous pizza in his mouth.

"Talk." commands Lilly.

Matt looks at her with a look as he chew his slice of pizza.

"Don't give me that look. I have the late shift that you were supposed to cover, but you left on your "vacation." Leaving me to deal with Emma and Regina and Snow White, who by the way did not have any problem with you leaving, which means that they know what is going on with you and I don't know. Not cool by the way. I am supposed to know what is going on with your life. Not to mention, this two star town is boring after midnight. This pizza makes up for the fact you left me for a week, but it does not makes up for the fact that I am covering for you tonight. So, tell me what happened?"

Matt takes a deep breath as Lilly takes another slice.

"I got a call from one of my buddies."

"Tyler or Jeremy?"

"Tyler. He has been keeping an eyes on my friends. Anyway, there is a situation that has been going on for the past year and he has been keeping me up to date on."

"What kind of situation?"

"The kind that we want to avoid as long as we are dealing with Mr. Hyde."

"Bad news?"

"Murderous vampires news."  
"OK. Really bad news."

"That is putting it mildly. So, the bad news was in Boston when Tyler called."

"How does he know?" ask Lilly as she finished up her slice and take another slice.  
"Vampires are not subtle."

"Gotcha."

"So, he went to Boston to check it out. He wanted back up, so I went down."

"And?"

"We were too late. All we found was a warehouse filled with their handiwork. I am surprised that they did as much damages as they did without getting noticed." said Matt. Lilly could see that Matt is going back to that place. Whatever it was, it had to be bad. Matt does not take time off. "Lilly, it was bad. If they come into this town with everything that is going on, this town would be gone within a week."

"That is bad."  
"We don't have the manpower to deal with them and Hyde's stuff. This town couldn't survive it. That is another reason that I went. I had to be sure that they did not come our direction."  
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I got your back. If they come around here, they have me to deal with." said Lilly with a smile. The brooding look on Matt's face is being replaced by his own smile.

"Actually it does." answer Matt.

Matt Donovan rarely talks about Mystic Falls. The moment he arrived in this town, he never brought it up unless he had to. That has been a year and six months. Give or take a month. As far as Lilly knows, the only friends that he talks to from his hometown are Tyler and Jeremy. The rest of his friends were doing something that he did not want to be in. Not anymore. Lilly figures that the vampires did a number on him.

As far as Lilly is concerned, Mystic Fall is bad news.

"Good, now entertain me for a few hours. I really hate this shift." said Lilly as Matt chuckles.

 _NOW_

 _Matt looks at the road map and wonders where to go._

 _Matt has to find a better life. There is no question about it. The problem is that he did not know what that would look like. He tries to imagine it in some way or some form. The only thing that he can see is darkness. Not the lack of hope darkness, but the lack of imagination darkness._

 _He wonders which is worse._

 _Since he could not see it, he is going to do the second best thing: He is going to cross off items on a bucket list, specifically Vicki's and Penny's bucket list._

 _When Vicki was little, she wanted to visit the weirdest sites on each state like the home of the largest chair in Casey, IL. Matt does not remember where this fascination came from. It simply stuck for a good ten years until she discovered boys._

 _When Penny was hungry, she wanted to eat a pizza. Every Friday was pizza day. She would stop by a different pizza place. She had the quest of finding the best pizza in the United State. After all this time, it was scary to Matt on how much pizza she can eat._

 _Since these bucket list were easy, Matt took it upon himself that he would cross these bucket list off while he figured out where he would go from here._

 _Seven states later, Matt realize that he might have to slow down on eating so much pizza._

 _That is why he is sitting in a booth in a diner, eating a salad and drinking water with a map laid out beside him._

 _Matt is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a stomach that did not want any pizza today. After he found the World's Largest Yogi Bear and took a picture, he found a diner to get something to eat. He sat down at a booth and ordered. With a quick service from the waitress, Matt could focus on his next big decision: Continuing going up the coast or going inward. Matt, however, make a note of the red dots on the map._

 _Those dots represents Damon's and Enzo's killing grounds. Bodies have been found on those locations. It was not just one body. It was several bodies draining of their blood. Matt heard that one officer quit the force after he saw the bodies._

 _Matt still had contacts. They were keeping him up to date with what is going on especially with Damon and Enzo going on a murderous rampage. Even though it was not his fight, Matt did not want to meet either one in a dark alley._

 _Keeping track on where they might have been is a smart way from not dying._

 _Matt takes another sip from his glass of water._

" _Mr. Donovan?" Matt's thoughts disappears as he looks up to see a woman with black hair wearing a gray suit and skirt standing in beside the booth. She is carrying a manila envelope. Nothing is out of place. There is a careful planning on how she has dressed._

" _Yes." reply Matt._

" _Hello, my name is Regina Mills. I am the mayor of Storybrooke." She extends her hand out. Matt stand up from his seat and shakes her hand._

" _Nice to meet you. How can I help you?" Matt motions for her to sit. She sits across the table from Matt. Matt sits down. He quickly scan the map of Pennsylvania to find the town and wondering how did she know who he was._

" _I am hoping that we can help each other. I am here to offer you a job." said Regina. Matt stop scanning and places his full attention on the Mayor._

" _I am sorry. Can you repeat that?" It did not sound right, but he just wanted to hear the statement one more time for it to register._

" _I am here to offer you a job."_

" _Why?" The statement just seem too ludicrous to be true._

" _Let me explain." Matt can see that she is looking for a way to explain. He could see it. While it might look like she had a poker face, Matt could see how her body is behaving. It is subtle. It helps to have been lied to so many times._

" _Storybrooke is a small secluded community in Maine. When something happens, everyone knows about it. It is annoying to say the less. Anyway, something has happened...it has divided our sheriff department's attention. To put it in smaller words, we don't have the manpower to deal with it. We need help and I feel that you can help us out." explains Regina._

" _Ok. But why me?" asks Matt. The explanation is missing something: How did the Mayor in Maine found out about him. "I am sure that they are plenty of people in your town that would be qualify to help you."_

" _Let's be honest with each other." said Regina. "I know where you are from."_

 _Matt looks at her, waiting for the explanation that he is hoping for._

" _I know that you used to be the sheriff of Mystic Fall. I know that you had a good record over there and the Mayor at Mystic Fall was very disappointed in the fact that you resigned."_

" _Ok."_

" _With our current situation, I need a sheriff who has experience in the position. I don't have time to train anyone and I need help now. Through….unorthodox means, your name came up."_

 _Matt looks at the Mayor with skepticism. Unorthodox means is not a good answer._

" _Look. I appreciates the offer, but I am pretty sure that I am not a good fit for you or your town. I hate to say it, but I am going to have to decline the job." reply Matt. He starts folding up the map._

 _He did not want to admit it, but Matt felt that his tenure as a sheriff was a failure. He accidentally killed his fiancee. He had helped create a new form of vampire. He could not even help one of his best friends out._

 _No. He is definitely not qualified._

" _Look...I can see that you are skeptical. I would be too if a stranger came to me and offer me a job. That means that you are not stupid. May I?" Regina extends her hand toward map. Matt hands the map to her. Regina start to scan it She then fold the map to have show the state of Maine. She place her finger on a specific spot. Matt look at where she had point and see in small letters: Storybrooke. She slides the map toward Matt._

 _Why don't you visit our town? While you are there, I can tell you why we need someone like you." said Regina. Matt takes the map from Regina. She then places the manila envelope in front of Matt. "This envelope will list your starting salary and benefits that I can give you."_

" _Um..Thanks." said Matt, not knowing how he should feel about this development._

" _If I do not see you within the next two weeks, I will assume that you are not interested in the job and the offer will be rescinded. Do I make myself clear?"  
_ " _Yes, ma'am." answers Matt._

 _"Good." said Regina as she gets up from her seat. "I hope you do come and visit us I would like you to see our town._

 _Regina walks away, leaving Matt bewildered from the conversation._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

One Year from now

Matt knocks at the open doorway of the Mayor's office and decides to stand outside. He looks around at the office from doorway. He hate to admit it, but the room had a grandiose feel to it. Considering who Regina Mills is, it is not surprising. He see the Mayor sitting at her desk, reading a form. She looks up and smiles.

"Matthew." answer Regina. "You're back?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Matt walks in the room.

"Since you are alive and well, is it correct for me to assume that the vampire issue has been resolved?" asks Regina as she puts down her paper.

The advantage of working for the former Evil Queen: She understands what evil is. Not the everyday kind that people have seen. She understands darkness that will burns everything in its path.

The fact is that she also knew where he came from and what Matt had experienced. She had been a big help by allowing him to research the old books and taking time off. In return, Matt told her what he knew outside the town limits, specifically what goes bump in the night.  
"As far as I am concerned, yeah." Matt walks up behind the chair in front of her desk. He did not feel the need to sit down.  
"What happened?"

"Short version, nothing. Turns out they left before we got there. It looks like they are making their way toward Florida." Matt could still see the road map that laid on the table. He could still see the spilled blood that stained the map. It was not the bodies that bother him so much is the fact that the killing has not stopped.  
"Really?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"What about that other thing?"

"The vault monster. She went with them."

"That is some good news." nod Regina.

Matt told Regina about the monster that the Armory had locked up in a vault, which Bonnie let out. He told her what it did to people. At the time, that is all he had. He had no idea what it actually was. According to Tyler, Bonnie couldn't find anything about it other than it was bad news.

It was one of the reason why Regina has allowed him to look through her books. In case the monster does comes into town, she wanted to be prepare for it.

With all research Matt have done on the monster, Matt may have something. After all, some of the books in Storybrooke are very old. He narrowed it down to six potential horrific monsters. Each one could be destroy a town within a day. Until he actually see it, he wouldn't know what it is.

"Do I want to ask what happened while I was gone?" asks Matt.  
"My doppelganger is here." said Regina.  
"Oh, god." said Matt as he sits down on the chair, feeling like his job got difficult.

"As you recall, I removed my bad self out of me with Jekyll's formula. Well, I thought I destroyed my bad self. Turns out that I am harder to kill than I thought. She has been here a while. Turns out she was scouting Storybrooke out as me." said Regina.

"Great." said Matt as he lean back on the chair. "Having two of you is not going to be fun."

"I am not happy about it. Considering that she wants to still kill Snow White, it will be a problem."

"Seriously, Mystic Falls had a doppelganger problem. It was never fun trying to figure out who was who." said Matt as he rubs his hair hoping it would take away his headache. Regina nods her head.

"Mental note: Put in a plan in case my doppelganger tries to replace me."

"Yes, you should. Like yesterday." Matt considered himself lucky. Katherine Pierce could have gotten him killed without even trying. He might not be so lucky even with the sword.

"Fine. I will get Snow and Emma in and we will work out something out and get everyone on the same page since it will be a big problem in their lives."

"Thank you." said Matt as he recalled the chaos that Katherine caused. "Since I am back, I am ready to come back to work."

Regina stand up from her chair. She extend her right hand. A puff of purple smoke engulf her hand. Once the smoke dissipated, she is holding a sword in its sheath. Regina quickly toss the sword toward Matt like it is on fire. Matt catches it. He did not want to take the sword outside the town's limits. He did not know how it would behave. After all, it is magical.

"Just get the OK from Emma. We may need you since we have a town's meeting today." said Regina.

"Expecting trouble."  
"Just the usual. Hyde has been causing a lot of problems while you were gone. Henry has a calming force on the people that Hyde brought over. He has actually helped some of them. But, Hyde still have something over them. He is up to something." said Regina.

"Gotcha. I will keep an eye on things." With that, Matt turns around and start to walks out of the room.

 _Now_

" _So, how did it go?" ask Henry Mills as his mother walks into his room._

 _Henry is sitting at his desk. There is a big book in front of him that he is writing on. He places his pen down and closes the book to focus on his mom. There is a bunch of blue thick books on Henry's desk._

" _As well as to be expected." said Regina as she sits down on Henry's bed._

 _When Regina told Emma that she was going to meet Matthew Donovan to offer him the position of sheriff of Storybrooke. Emma insisted in driving her. Regina did not mind the company. It allowed her to explains to Emma what she was actually doing._

 _What Regina did not like is the yellow Volkswagen bug that Emma Swan owns. She hates being in that tight space for any length of time._

 _Now that her trip is over and she is looking at her son, she smiles and forget about the drive._

 _She looks at Henry Mills and wonders what she can do to protect him. The small boy that she wants to protect is become a man with purpose. There is nothing that she can do to stop it. Having his first girlfriend and life purpose as an Author, it is coming fast. It felt like yesterday, she was taking care of her little son from the chicken pox. Now, Regina wishes her teenager son would stop growing up._

 _But she can't and she wouldn't._

 _She, however, is getting something that she never expected: A advisor._

" _He will be here. We just have to have a plan to get him to stay." said Henry as he nods._

" _Henry. Why is it so important that we hire this man?" ask Regina. "I know you recommend him but why?"_

 _The moment that Mr. Hyde appeared in Storybrooke, life in StoryBrooke became complicated. It was not the fact that he came by himself. It was the fact that he brought company. He brought with him several individuals from the Land of Untold Stories. They were upsetting the balance in the town. This event was forcing attention to be diverted elsewhere. It got to the point that Regina heard someone asking if the heroes were going on another quest, who would protect the town from Mr. Hyde's machinations. When she realized that she did not have an answer to that question, it forced her to rethink everything._

 _Regina had started on focusing on contingents. She hated to admit it: She had been slacking on her responsibility as Mayor. Regina had to make sure that the town was protected._

 _Her first priority was getting a backup for Mayor position. She had only one person in mind. After a long discussion with Snow White, Snow White agreed to step in if something happens to Regina. Snow did not like it but Regina had to point out what has been happening. The trip to Camelot and the Underworld was making the town vulnerable and nervous. Another thing was Snow White's focus has slowing been shifting away the adventure/quest into protecting her son._

 _Snow White is the smart choice to fill in for Regina as Mayor. \_

 _The sheriff issue was an issue that had to be address. It was Henry who suggested Matt Donovan's name in the mix._

 _David Nolan aka Prince Charming pointed out that there was two sheriff and there was no need to hired for one. Henry did pointed out one important fact: Both sheriffs have left the town and left the dwarves in charge. David and Emma did not have any statement to counter that. After all, Hades killed King Arthur after Arthur escaped from his jail cell._

 _Henry also pointed out that the town population exploded with the new arrivals. The sheriff department will need help. Henry had the perfect candidate. Regina humored her son at the time and said she would think about it. Henry handled his mom a folder of what he had found out about Matt Donovan. Once she looked at what her son found out, Regina suddenly took her son very seriously._

 _Matthew was a sheriff for a small town called Mystic Falls. He did receive training to be a sheriff. The fact that the young man did not abandoned the small town after a chemical spill, that spoke volumes. After making a few phone calls to the Mayor of the small town, she liked Henry's choice. Regina had to ask one important question to her son: Why?  
Henry simply reply why not? _

_At the time, Regina did not press the issue._

 _Regina went to offer the job to Matt based on her son's word. She however did not place a lot of faith that Matthew Donovan would accept the position. After all, he never applied for the job. After her initial encounter, she wished that he did._

 _Now, Regina like to know why it is so important to Henry._

" _He needs a second chance."_

" _What are you talking about?" asks Regina._

 _Henry grabs one of the big books on his desk and hands it to her. Regina looks at the book. It is like his other books: big and bulky. More importantly, the book is like the first book he had. It was an Author's book._

 _She opens it up and see the pictures. The first picture she see is a boy picking up a football. Regina looks at Henry. This is different. She turns the pages to see the young man riding his bicycle. Each pages that she turns, She turns the page to see the kid playing football with the neighborhood kids. Regina see the kid first kiss with the girl in the neighborhood. Regina chuckles as she see the little boy angrily chasing a little girl sticking her tongue at him. When she see the pages of the boy wearing a football uniform as a teenage, she realize that she is looking at a young Matthew Donovan._

 _Regina looks at Henry with a surprised look._

" _I did that a few weeks ago." said Henry._

 _Henry is an Author. He documents stories. While he cannot do anything to influence the outcome of a story, it did not mean he could not help. With the new arrivals from the Land of Forgotten Stories, he found out that all the arrivals had issues that they wanted to run away from. They were not eager to share those issues to complete strangers. Those stories were not hidden to Henry. It is how he is trying to help some people from the Land of Forgotten Stories to they can move on emotionally._

 _This story is a different issue._

" _Ok. That is different." comments Regina._

" _Tell me about it. I freaked out a bit. I never wrote a story about someone in the normal world. It was always about character in stories."_

" _Understandable."  
_ " _The fact that it was a normal person that I just documented, I had to find out if he exists. When I did, I did some research on him. I start to check out details from the town's newspapers, his online profile, and even his high school newspaper. I compared it all to the book. It almost line up."_

" _Almost line up?"  
_ " _Well…"_

" _Henry." Regina can tell her son is nervous about this.  
_ " _Have you ever seen a vampire?" ask Henry._

" _Yes…" answers Regina, not liking where this was going. She had some run in with vampires. Never a pleasant experience._

" _Matt has. He also had to dealt with werewolves, witches and ghosts. Stuff you don't talk about on Facebook but I wrote it."_

" _Interesting." said Regina, starting to see her son's line of thinking. "If he has seen all of that, he wouldn't be freaked out when he comes to Storybrooke."_

" _Exactly. I think that is why I wrote his story, I think he is meant to come here. When I said that he has experience, I meant he had experience as a sheriff and other things. It makes sense. He should be the new sheriff."_

" _Why didn't you tell me this before?"  
_ " _The last page."_

" _What about it?"  
_ " _He had a fall out with his friends. It dealt with magic. It was not really bad, but it was definitely not good. It was enough that he left Mystic Falls in search of a normal life." said Henry._

" _If he wants a normal life, I wouldn't force him to come or to stay." said Regina. "I can't blame him for wanting a normal life."  
_ " _I know, but he would be perfect to be sheriff of Storybrooke. Grandpa and Mom is doing the best that they can, but they need help. Trust me. Just read his story and you will agree with me." said Henry._

" _Ok." said Regina with a smile. "I will read it."_

One year from now

"Never leave us again." Matt instantly feel a hug from the smaller man who everyone calls Grumpy.

With his stomach growling for food, Matt went straight to Granny's diner. When he walked in, he was greeted by the sweet smells of pancakes and coffee. There were other smells but Matt only wanted to focus on those smells. He had to deal with vampire drama that he had hope to never deal with again.

He deserves pancakes.

The hug from the short guy….that is something else different.

"Ummm...Did I miss anything?" asks Matt with a confusion. Grumpy let go of Matt.

"Matt. She is out of control." said Grumpy.

"Who?"  
"Lilly."

"What did she do?" ask Matt with some concern. Grumpy walks back to his seat with his head hanging low in shame. Sneezy looks at Matt.

"Lilly has been ruthless to Grumpy." said Sneezy with a sneeze and a smile. Matt let out a sigh of relief. With Sneezy smiling, Matt can feel that he shouldn't be too concerned.

"Grumpy, what did she do?" asks Matt.

"That girl has been ruthless with her insults. It's 'Hey, Shorty!' Or 'Hey, Lamb chop' or 'Mini Hulk.' That girl is relentless."

"That does not sound too bad. Ever so often, she call me Captain Chin." said Matt as he take a seat. Matt could hear some chuckles in the diner. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tinkerbell eating her breakfast chuckling at him. He then saw Granny walking up to him with a plate of pancakes.

"How did you know?" asks Matt.

"I didn't. I am bribing you to never leave us again. Do you thinks that Grumpy was the only one that Lilly picked on while you were away on vacation?" asks Granny as she lays the plate of pancakes in front of Matt. Matt looks around the diner and sees several people nodding their heads.

"She started playing the meow game with Peter over at the pumpkin patch." said the woman formerly known as Cinderella.

"I hate the meow game." yells out someone in the diner. People start agreeing.

"Lilly sucks." yells out Tinkerbell. Matt look straight at Tinkerbell. She is wearing her uniform and a smile on her face. Matt shakes his head as he knows what she is doing.

"I got one question." said Matt in a loud voice as he places his focus back on the crowd, hoping to appease them before they turn into a mob. "Was she wearing her uniform when she did this?"

"NO!" said everyone in unison.

Matt sighs in frustration. If she was wearing her uniform, this would have been Emma Swann's problem. But she was not wearing her uniform, meaning it was her friend's problem, which made it his problem.

"Fine. I will talk to her. No sense in telling Emma about it." said Matt as he pours maple syrup over his pancake, knowing that he really shouldn't.

"Just don't leave on vacation." said Grumpy. "She seems to behave when you are here."

"Welcome back!" said David aka Prince Charming as he files a paper in the file cabinet. Matt walks into the sheriff's office and walks straight over the desk. David Nolan is wearing jeans and a flannel shirt.

The thought that he is working with Prince Charming aka David still blow Matt's mind. Matt hate to say it, but David did look like a Prince. Although he is royalty, he behaves like a guy you would have beer with or play touch football on thanksgiving. His wife, on the other hand, seems like royalty. Her mannerism is very proper. The fact that she knew how to use a bow and arrow still throws Matt off.

"Thank. Glad to be back." answers Matt as he sit down behind his desk. His desk is clean.

"Aren't you supposed to be on vacation?" asks Emma as she walks out of her office. Emma Swann is wearing her black blouse and jean. For David and Emma, they were very informal with their uniform. Matt didn't feel like he should not be in uniform when he is working. In his mind, the uniform is important.

"I got bored." answers Matt, knowing full well that Emma knew what was going on.

"So, the trip was good?" asks Emma.

"Not as good as it should be." reply Matt as he nods to Emma. Emma knew what happened. She was very understanding about it.

"OK." said Emma. "So, you are back?"  
"If you want me to be?"

"Actually, Lilly has been annoying since you went on vacation. So, yes you are." answers Emma. Matt shakes his head at the future conversation that he is going to have with Lilly.

"Not you, too." said Matt

"She played the meow game." said Emma with a disapproval tone. David walks back to his desk looking at Emma.

"I seem to recall walking in the room with you two meowing at each other in a very angry fashion." said David with some confusion.

"I was defending myself from her." reply Emma as David chuckles as his daughter. She places her focus back at Matt. "You are getting the night shift since she took your shift last night.

"In that case, going home right now to get some sleep." said Matt as he get up from his desk.

"Did you talk to Regina?" asks Emma

"Yep." Matt pats the sword "Do you want me at the meeting?"  
"Yeah." answers Emma as Matt start walking out the door. "See you then."

 _NOW_

" _You are nuts for not taking this deal." said Tyler Lockwood as he looks over the email attachment. He is speaking directly to his cell phone that is lying beside his laptop. He is dressed very casually. He was on his way out for a night of drinking when he saw the email. After reading it, he had to call Matt back._

" _I didn't say no." said Matt. Matt is inside a motel room when the carpet has not been changed since the 1980 and the paint on the wall is needing a new coat of paint._

 _After his initial conversation with the mayor, Matt did read the proposal. After he finished, Matt emailed Tyler Lockwood the job offer. He just wanted to have another pair of eyes to read what the proposal. It seems too unbelievable. An hour later, Tyler called him back._

" _You didn't say hell yes." said Tyler._

 _Matt takes a deep breath and waits for his friend to explain._

" _Dude. You will be making more money taking this job than what you made at Mystic Falls. You have better benefits. Insurance look wonderful. Let's not to mention the fact that you will get a house. Dude, no one gets a house unless they are an NBA Player. A house."  
_ " _I don't need a house." said Matt.  
_ " _Yes, you do. You are living in your truck and you have no job. Yeah, you need this job." counters Tyler Lockwood._

" _There might be some magic involved." fires back Matt to the sound logic.  
_ " _What makes you say that?"_

" _Gut feeling." said Matt as a thought emerge in his head. "Don't you still have access the Armory files?"_

" _Yes, I do. No one changed it after the Armory turned inside out. I don't think anyone knows that I still have it." Tyler clicked an icon and it prompted him to log in. " I am logging in right now. Have you talk to anyone since you left?"  
_ " _Nope. I rather not know what is going on. If I don't know what is going on, then I wouldn't get that urge to try and help them. I can't help them."_

" _Yeah, I hear you." said Tyler as he can hear his friend's voice. The tone of frustration is evident. Matt was the guy that help anyone and everyone especially his friends. The arrival of the Salvatore brothers took away something important out of Matt and Tyler hated that. "OK, I am in. What do you want me to look at?"_

" _Storybrooke, Maine."_

" _Hmmm.." said Tyler as he type the town's name in the search engine. "There is something."  
_ " _Really."  
_ " _Good call. The Armory had the town on a list for them to check out. The thing was that they were at the very bottom of a very long list. It looks like other things kept popping up that they simply forgotten about the town."_

" _Like what?" ask Matt._

" _Vampires and crazed witches. All of that took priority."_

" _Why was the town placed on their list?" asks Matt.  
_ " _According to the file, a small boy was found seventeen years ago. He was talking about a town that he and his father found. He said that it simply appeared out of nowhere. Kid said that his dad was trapped there. The thing is that they found the kid in the middle of nowhere. No one believe him. Looks like the Armory was going to check it out. Like I said, other things took priority over that."_

" _How does a town appear out of nowhere?" ask Matt as he lie down on the bed.  
_ " _Don't know. I kinda of want to see what this town looks like."_

" _Weird."  
_ " _Admit it. You want to see this town,too."  
_ " _It would explain a lot. Still trying to figure out how they got my name." wonders Matt out loud.  
_ " _Linkedin?"  
_ " _Never put up a profile." answers Matt. "I think I am going to check this town out."  
_ " _Need back up?"  
_ " _I should be alright as long as there is no prophecy that I have to fulfill in that town."_

" _Hell, if you die up there, I will personally find Rebekah, drive her to that town, and let her loose. Let's see what happen to that town when she get there." half jokes Tyler.  
Matt shakes his head at the thought._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 **One year from now**

"What are you doing?" asks Matt as he looks at Lilly walking beside him. After hitting Granny's diner for a quick breakfast, Matt is walking back to his truck. As he walks down the street, Matt cannot help but smile. It reminds him of Mystic Fall: People walking down the street, shop owners sweeping their sidewalk. People waving to him or saying good morning. The sky is a nice blue with fluffy clouds.

All a person had to do is ignore the fact that Mr. Hyde is causing so many problems, Storybrooke would be a Norman Rockwell painting.

Leave it to Lilly to interrupt his thoughts by skipping beside him.

"I am making sure that you get to your truck in one piece. We live in a very violent society. You never know who could try to run up behind you and mug you." Matt recognizes her tone. Something is up.

"I already have my breakfast, Lilly. I am not buying you coffee." said Matt since that was Lilly go to favor.

"I don't want any coffee. I want my shift to be over so I can go to bed." Lilly yawns for effect. "I am just killing time before the end of my shift. Beside, I worry about you. You are such a delicate flower that I don't want anyone think that you were easy prey."

"What is up, Lilly?" asks Matt the same question in another way.

"Fine. I heard that someone wants to ask you out." asks Lilly with a chuckle.

"Are you kidding me?" Matt had to see her face.

Her expression is giddy. She can barely contain her excitement. It is like she is in high school and she wants to tell everyone the juicy gossip.

"Nope. Someone thinks you're cute." giggles Lilly. Matt shakes his head. He cannot believe that she is taking joy in this. Of course, he did not advertises his dating life. To be fair, Matt's dating life did take a backseat. Storybrooke is not boring in a Wild West type of way.

"Who is it?" asks Matt, knowing that if he did not ask, Lilly will simply explodes.

"Tink."

"Tink?" asks Matt trying to hide the tense in his shoulder.

"Tinkerbell." Lilly looks at Matt's face, only to see that he is still confused. "Sister Green or whatever she wants to call herself?"

"What?" Matt could feel the tension in his shoulder. Hoping that Lilly would drop the subject, Matt fakes his confusion.  
"Yeah. I heard from Cinderella, who heard it from Aurora, who heard it from Granny, that Tinkerbell was talking to the Blue Fairy about finding a loophole about dating. I think she got the ok."

"You really have no idea how a nun works?" Matt had to shake his head in disbelief at the obvious lie. He really want this subject to be drop, but Lilly may not let go of this.

"What?" asks Lilly.  
"Matthew!" yells out a male voice interrupting the conversation. Matt thanks whatever gods exists in the world. They stop walking and look around. They see the voice of a man dressed in black. He is pale, skinny and has long stringy hair. He has not shaved for days and he is hiding behind a dumpster in the alleyway.

"Walter?" said Lilly. She seems confused by his presence in her day.

"Ugh...not you.." said Walter as he notices Lilly. He did not hide his disappointment over Lilly's existence.

"Yes, me." said Lilly, who looks like she just wanted to hit Walter.

"I just want to talk to Matthew." said Walter as he gives the stink eye to Lilly.

"What do you want, Walter?" asks Matt with frustration slowly building over the conversation. Matt knows what is coming if he did not keep the conversation on focus. Lilly and Walter had a history with each other, which neither one ever told. Whatever it is, they had a dislike only found in werewolves and vampires between each other. He makes his way to get closer to Walter.

"I got a deal for you." said Walter with a smile.

"Walter! You know that this is a deal free making town. We don't make deals." said Lilly.

"Trust me, you want to make this deal."

"What do you thinks this is? The Wire. Here is a deal: How about I introduce you to my mom if you don't talk." said Lilly.

"Jeez, who wants that trouble?" said Walter as he backs away from Lilly. Matt sighs in frustration.

"Walter, I got a twenty and you don't meet her mom. Good enough for you to talk?" asks Matt.

"Good enough." agrees Walter. Matt reaches in his pocket and take out the twenty and gives it to Walter. Walter snatches it out of Matt's hand and put the twenty in his pocket.

"Hyde is up to something." said Walter. Lilly sighs in her frustration.

"Like what?" asks Lilly as she places her profession face on.

"I don't know. I did not ask. What I do know is that he needed a couple of his people out of town for a few days. He came to me because I know a way around that barrier that the Dark One put up a while back." explains Walter.

"Walter, you know if Regina finds out what you did, I can't help you." mentions Matt. The barrier keeps the outside world from finding out about the existence of StoryBrooke. The problem is that when someone leaves town, they can never come back.

"I made a deal with the Dark One back in the day." said Walter.

"Seriously, if the Dark One comes to collect, we can't help you." said Lilly.

"Look, the deal was I needed a way around this barrier. You know come in and out. I have my own deals to work on. Anyway, the Dark One was able to get me some "passes." I got about ten passes. I use one, they go up in flames. The problem was that I need to use one to get out and one to get in."  
"The Dark One screwing you over. Imagine that." said Lilly.

"What did the Dark One get out of your deal?" asks Matt.

"I had to get some items for him from the outside world. Nothing big. So, he is paid in full."

"Wait, you gave these passes to Hyde's people?" guesses Lilly.

"Yep."

"Do you know where they went?" ask Lilly.  
"No clue, other than they were building something."

"How do you know if you don't know what they are up to."

"I might have been keeping an eye on them when they got back. You know, to make sure they didn't bring in something really bad. One of them dropped a box and it spilled out. It had some weird things in it that screams bad news." said Walter.

"Crap!" said Lilly.

"Walter. Tell me you got a name." said Matt.

"Jenny and Johnny Smith."

"Really?" ask Matt wondering how no one paid attention to the obvious fake name.  
"No lie. I have their address on a piece of paper." Walter places a piece of paper on the dumpster. "You didn't hear any of this from me."

Walter runs away from the deputies signaling the end of their conversation.

"If I ignore this, I can go home and sleep." said Lilly.

"If you ignore this, Mr. Hyde is going to do something bad." said Matt as he walks over to the dumpster.

"I can give it to Emma." points out Lilly.  
"Emma has her hands full and you know it. If Walter is telling the truth, I am willing to bet that Mr. Hyde is planning all sort of problems to distract everyone today." said Matt, knowing how the literate character work just on his experience with him. He looks at the address.

"Crap. I am not going to get any sleep today." said Lilly.

"You can. I can look into this." said Matt.

"I don't think so. If something happens to you, I will never hear the end of it." said Lilly. "Give me a minute, I am going to need the cup of coffee."

 ** _Present_**

 _Matt turns off his truck and breathe a sigh of relief._

 _His trip to Storybrooke was not fun. He got a flat tire, encountered a traffic jam, got pulled over by the local law enforcement, and ran out of his motel room that he tried to sleep in because the motel caught on fire. This drive was definitely a trip that Matt did not want to repeat._

 _Yep….he feels like crap and he is pretty sure that he looks like it._

 _He steps out of his truck, stretch, and locks his truck. Matt takes a good look at the town. People are walking in and out of the small shops that is on the main street of the town. He see that the town had a clock tower along with a library underneath. A man is walking his dalmatian, which put a smile on Matt's face. Various people are stopping to take the time to talk each other._

 _Matt is trying to figure out if this town is Norman Rockwell or Stephen King._

 _As Matt starts to get on the sidewalk, he bumps into someone, who drops what she was carry._

" _Not again." said the lady as she looks down on the ground at what was spilled._

 _Matt look down and saw a bag filled with egg carton._

" _I am so sorry." apologizes Matt. "I didn't see you."_

 _He looks at the woman that he crashed into. She is wearing a dark blue dress. It is buttoned up. It is not a dress to impress men but to be modest. Matt swallows in saliva when he actually see her face. While she is a cute blonde, she is more importantly a sister in the religious sense._

 _His karma is messing with him now._

" _I am so sorry, Sister." apologizes Matt._

" _Blu….Mother Superior is going to have my head." said the nun._

" _Please, let me pay you for that." said Matt. "It was my fault. I should have been watching where I was going."  
_ " _Thankfully, I did not buy all the eggs at the store." rambles the nun. "I appreciate that. We are getting ready for the annual bake sale and I need those eggs to get the cakes started."_

 _She turns to look at Matt._

" _Oh."  
_ " _What?" asks Matt as he reaches in his pocket to take out his wallet._

" _Nothing…" The nun simply stares at Matt for a second longer she likes. "I do not recognizes you."_

" _I am not around here." Matt opens up his wallet and is relieve to see that he had some cash in it. He takes out the hundred dollar bill and hands it to the nun._

" _Where are you from?" asks the nun._

" _Mystic Falls." said Matt as he take a good look at the nun, longer then he would like. "Is a hundred enough?"  
_ " _Oh, Yes!" said the nun with relief as she takes the bill. "That is more than enough. I should give you your change back."  
_ " _Don't worry about it. It was only going for pizza. The change can be a donation for your church." Matt figures that a donation to the local church could balances out the weird karma that insists on putting Matt through a bad trip._

" _Thank you, so much. You really have no idea how much this means to me." said the sister. Matt gives her a look. Definitely too pretty to be a nun. "I am not in good standing with Mother Superior. If I don't bring back the eggs, I am pretty sure that I will be cleaning bathroom. Again."_

" _Nuns get into trouble?" asks Matt as he get on his right knee to pick up the bag of broken eggs._

" _Yep." said the sister who cannot hide her embarrassment._

" _Well, I will be in town for a few days. If you need someone to vouch for you that it was my fault, just find me." said Matt as he stands up as he picks up the bag. He looks around to find the trash can. "By the way, I'm Matt."_

" _Tin...Sister Green." said the woman known to everyone in town as Tinkerbell. Mother Superior told Tinkerbell to adopt a new name in the new world. "I would not worry about it. As long as I have the eggs, I should be fine. So, why are you in Storybrooke?"_

 _Matt sees a trash can and walks over._

" _Job offer." Matt shoves the bag in the trash can.  
_ " _Really?"  
_ " _Yeah. The Mayor offered me a job."_

" _Regina?!"  
_ " _You know her?"  
_ " _A bit."_

" _How is she?"_

" _Difficult."_

" _Really?"  
_ " _Stubborn too. A bit of a...witch." said Tinkerbell. The two ladies had patch things up over the true love incident. Tinkerbell, although, wishes that things worked out differently. She knew that Regina is still dealing with the loss of Robin._

" _One of my friend is a witch." said Matt. "I can deal with that."_

" _Not like Regina." comments Tinkerbell. "What job is she offering?"  
_ " _Sheriff. Guess the department is shorthanded."_

" _I guess." said Tinkerbell. "Are you going to take it?"_

" _I don't know. That is why I am here. Trying to figure out what I am going to do."_

" _Well, this town is...something else." said Tinkerbell, wondering how much she should share with the outsider and how an outsider was able to come into the town._

" _Nothing I can't handle. The question is do I want to." said Matt. Tinkerbell looks at Matt and see that he is mentally going somewhere._

" _I got to get going." said Tinkerbell realizing that she is on a schedule. She had to help out at the school. Not her favorite part of the day. She had to watch over the kids that were staying after school in the daycare. Tinkerbell hate to admit it but she was not a kid person._

 _She also did not want it to be too obvious that she is staring at Matt way too long. She did not know why. After all, he is not really her type._

" _Sorry. I have been driving by myself. Guess I have been doing that for too long."  
_ " _Understand." Tinkerbell starts to walk back to the store. "Thanks again for the donation."_

" _Hey."  
_ " _Yeah." Tinkerbell stops, hoping that he is not going to ask her out.  
_ " _Where can I get something to eat?"  
_ " _Best food would be Granny's diner." answer Tinkerbell. "Go a block turn to your left. It will be on your left. You cannot miss it."  
_ " _Thanks, Sister Green." Matt turns to the opposite direction. "Hope you don't get into any more trouble._

" _Thanks." said Tinkerbell, slightly disappointed that he did not ask her out. "I do hope you take that job."_

 _Tinkerbell start walk away, hoping that Matt did not see her face turning fifty shades of red._

 _Matt watches the nun walk away and shakes his head._

" _Why do you have to be a nun?" whispers Matt to himself. He starts to follow the nun's direction to find the diner._

 _The nun's directions did lead Matt to Granny's diner. He walks past the patio and walk right in._

" _You look like crap." said Granny as she looks over at Matt as he walk in the diner. He smiles at the remark as if he was expecting it._

" _I feel like it." said Matt. "Tell me that you have coffee."_

" _Just the regular stuff, not any of that fancy whipped cream stuff." said Granny._

" _Perfect. I take some with some milk in it." answers Matt._

 _Granny nods with a smile. Matt sits down at the counter and look around. It is the classic Americana diner. He takes a menu that is being held up by the holder. The menu had everything that scream diner: Hamburger, fries, milkshakes, beer and pancakes._

 _Granny put the cup of coffee down and Matt did not hesitate in drinking it._

" _Thank you." said Matt as he slowly feel like he had some common sense. Trying to flirt with a nun. That would definitely give him bad karma. "Maybe you can do me a favor."  
_ " _Depends what that is."  
_ " _Place to sleep that will not catch on fire." asks Matt._

" _My diner is part B &B. You can rent out a room here." said Granny._

" _Can I rent one for the weekend?" said Matt._

" _Sure." said the older woman with a smile. Matt smiles back. Matt take out two hundred dollars bills and place it in front of Granny._

" _If you can get me a hamburger and fries, I would appreciate it."_

" _Certainly." said Granny with a smile as she take the bills. "Hamburger will be up in a few minutes. And I will give you the keys to the room."_

" _Thank you." reply Matt. Granny walks away to get Matt's order. For the first time in a long time, Matt let himself catch his breath and relax._

" _Seriously, we are going to talk about this?" said a female voice behind Matt as he hear a bell ringing on the entrance of the diner._

" _What? It is never too early to talk about baby's name." Said a woman beside her. Matt sip the coffee, not realizing that a smile is forming. "Alexander is a perfect name for a child."_

" _Mom. I love you, but I am not pregnant. I have no intention of getting pregnant. Before you asked, no. I am not looking. And yes, Alexander is a good name." Matt could see at the corner of his eyes the two ladies talking to each other. He wonder if he is imagining it but, they looks like the same age. Although, they did dress very differently. One woman is wearing jean and a tshirt while the other look like she came out of a 1920 silent movie complete with the hat._

" _Thank you. I just wanting you to think of such matter." Matt figures that the well dressed woman is the mother. Matt could not help but notices a couple at the corner of the diner. The lady is holding her child while her husband is eating something. Both individuals are giving the women talking about babies name a death stare._

" _I love you, Mom but the only thing I am thinking about is getting job. I love you but I do not want to live with you forever." said the lady, who is oblivious to the couple's hatred._

" _Is something wrong with our arrangement?" said the lady with the hat. Matt could hear a little hurt in her voice._

" _No, mom. I love getting to know you. In fact, I actually love it." Matt smiles at the daughter. There is sincere behind it. "But, I am pretty sure at some point, we will want to have lives outside of each other."_

" _You want to have a guy over without your mother interfering." deducts the lady with the hat.  
_ " _That and the fact that my mom looks like she is the same age as me. Do you know how creepy guys can get?"  
_ " _Actually, I do." said the woman with the hat._

" _It is not going to be soon, Mom. I still need to get all of this mastered before I even think about anything else. But, I do need to start thinking about it."_

 _Matt could not help but chuckles as he notices Granny bringing him a plate of his burger and fries. The two ladies reminds him of his sister and mom except with a better ending._

" _Here you are." Granny places the plate in front of Matt and laid the keys down. "Your room is on the second floor. First door on the right. Room 3."_

" _Thank you." Said Matt as he drinks his coffee._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

One year from now

Matt drives his truck up to the front of the curb, places it in park and turns off the car. They are park in front of a nice house with white picket fence. The grass is trimmed and the flower garden is weed free. The blue house has a porch with a swinging bench. The house is on a slight hill. The facade of the house has a classic look for a two story home. The house is so picturesque that it deserve to be on HGTV. Lilly Page steps out of the truck without waiting for Matt to get out.

Like the brat that she is, Lilly made Matt drive.

"Well, this screams problems." remarks Lilly as Matt steps out. He grabs his phone out of the truck and looks at his phone.

"What are you doing? Waiting for Tink's phone call." jokes Lilly as Matt pulls up an app from his smart phone. Matt did not show any amusement by the joke.

"What do you think about Walter?" asks Matt as he changes the subject..

"He is a creep." reply Lilly wondering where this conversation is leading to. "Why are you asking?"

"I think the guy is a weasel."

"Seriously. Why do you even talk to him?" asks Lilly.

"Because he will sell out his own mother to save his own neck." said Matt.

"Ok. As long as he is not lying, he is a good snitch." said Lilly as she make her way to Matt.

"That is the good thing about him. He never lie. The bad things is that he just don't give you the whole truth." said Matt. He continues to look at his phone.

"What's your point?" asks Lilly.

"I think he is telling the truth about Hyde."

"Ok. I'll bite. How do you know?"  
"Last year, the idiot lost his phone. I found it. Before I gave it back to him, I made sure that I can track his phone. I am not telling you anymore than that to keep you out of this."

"Wait, you can track his phone?"

"Yep. Guess what?"  
"What?"  
"He is already gone." Matt holds up his phone to show Lilly phone's screen. It had a map of Maine. There is an arrow heading out of the state of Maine specifically out of the town of Storybrooke.  
"Wait. He left town?"

"Yeah." Matt decides to let it process in Lilly's mind. "Look like he is in a diner outside of Maine."  
"He knows something." said Lilly.  
"Yeah."  
"What the hell is Hyde planning if Walter decided that leaving town is the smart thing to do?" asks Lilly as she looks at the house.  
"Don't know. But we need to find out." said Matt as he stares at the house. They stand beside the truck, not making a move toward the house.

"We could be walking into a trap." remarks Lilly.

"Wouldn't be the first time." said Matt.  
"Great. We could die in there." comments Lilly

"What do you have to worry about?" Matt looks at his partner, not believing that the sentence came out of her mouth. "You're a scary dragon bitch."  
"Doesn't mean I am invincible."

"Just big and dangerous."  
"Damn straight, skippy." Lilly looks at her partner. "Ready?"  
"No." said Matt with a smile.

They both start to walks up to the front door of the potentially deathtrap. Matt looks around, hoping to see something that were alert them to a potential danger. When they approaches the door, they approaches with caution. Lilly knocks while Matt continues to scan.

They wait for a minute. Both individuals waiting to hear a sound from inside the house Lilly knocks on the door again.

"It's the sheriff's department." said Lilly, resisting the urge to make a joke.

They waits for a minute.

"Should we break in?" asks Lilly. Matt's face gives her his answer. "Fine. I'll check around back see if there are any broken windows." Lilly walks off the porch.  
"Lilly."

"I said check, not causes." clarifies Lilly as she walks away from the front porch. She follows the walkway to the side of the house, while checking for any open windows or broken window. There is no fence that secure the backyard.

With her thought on looking for a reason to get into the house, she is startled by a man standing in the backyard. What caught her eye is the fact that he is holding something. Her mind didn't register what it is until she felt a pinch on her arm.

It is a taser.

That was the last thought she had before the voltage courses into her body.

 _Present_

 _It has been a long time since Matt felt relaxed as he watches the town from a park bench by the harbor._

 _After the lunch that he had yesterday, Matt walked around the town. Since everyone seems busy, no one paid attention to Matt. He counted his blessings for that. He simply observed how people behaved with each other without anyone asking questions. Nothing strange._

 _Just small town living._

 _Once the time came, Matt walked back to Granny's diner to get cleaned up It did not take long for Matt to take a shower and go straight to bed. What he didn't realized at the time was the fact that he needed the sleep and his body welcomed it._

 _Twelve hours later, Matt woke up feeling like a human being. Matt changed clothes, had some breakfast and did his checklist._

 _Before he left Mystic Falls, Matt made a checklist that he wanted to do before making a decision. It was something that Tyler insisted that Matt had to do. After some arguing, Matt reluctantly agreed with Tyler._

 _1\. The house. In the offer, the mayor listed the house that Matt would stay in while he is sheriff. Matt drove to the house and simply stared at it According to the job offer, he had to work for the sheriff department for three years. During that time, he could live in the home, which would be property of the city. After three years, he can have the home. No mortgage is needed. It would be his home free and clear. To Matt, it was simply too good to be true. The home is nice. It has a big back yard with white picket fence. There is a porch. Matt try to resist the urge to break in to see the layout. While it is nothing compared to the Lockwood home, it did not matter. The house would be his and no one else. For an hour, Matt fantasized about living in the house._

 _2\. Matt took another drive around the town. He wanted to know where everything is lay out. Where is the school? Where is the town hall? Where is the sheriff office? He had to get an idea how the town would behave?_

 _3\. School. He did see the grade school. Like the town, it is simply clean and nice._

 _4\. Review the packet that the mayor gave him. He had to look over the benefits again to be sure he did not miss anything._

 _The town is what he expected. In fact, it reminded him more of Mystic Falls. It had that feel. It felt like home._

 _The thought hits him like a brick. He did not miss Mystic Falls. He miss home. He miss having his own place to stay. He miss having the option of calling friends over and having a cookout. He miss running through town without having to worry about vampires. He miss catching the high school football games on Friday night and catching a college game on Saturday. He miss Penny and Vicki._

 _Matt takes another sip from his coffee that he brought at Granny's diner. Matt could not believe that the thought is in his head. As he thought about it, it made sense._

 _Mystic Falls stop feeling like a home when Vicki died. He just simply did not realize it. Matt had things distracting him from that thought. He had his friends. He had school and a job. He had a future. Things, however, changed. His friends slowly moved away for various reasons. People that he trusted started to die. He nearly died in the truck accident was the last straw. His own friend left him in the truck as opposed to helping him. That straw made Mystic Falls something else entirely. It was not home. It was a place where he had to fight just to stay alive._

 _This town. It might be a better place for him._

" _You must be Matt." Matt looks up at the voice that interrupts his thought. There is a teenage kid standing in front of him. He is carrying a writer's satchel._

" _Do I know you?" asks Matt._

" _Doubt it. I'm Henry." Henry extends his hand in friendship. Matt stands up and shakes the kid's hand. "I'm the mayor's son."  
_ " _Oh. Matt." Matt sits back down with the kid sitting beside Matt._

" _So, what do you think?" asks Henry.  
_ " _You mean the town." Henry nods. "Not bad."_

" _You like it." said Henry with a smile._

" _What makes you say that?"_

" _You haven't left." said Henry. "I was at Granny's yesterday when you walked in. The fact that you are still here after twenty four hours is a good sign."_

" _I guess it would be. How do you know it was me?" asks Matt realizing that he knew only one person in town, whom he had been avoiding since he got into town. Actually, he knew Sister Green, who he is hoping to see again.  
_ " _Mayor's son. Mom tries not to keep any secrets from me. Beside, I helped her with the search." reply Henry._

 _Matt looks at Henry. There is the feeling again that something is off. Matt remembers that the Mayor did say that it was through unorthodox mean that Matt's name came up. Hopefully he can find out what that meant._

" _So, this is legit. I am not part of some sacrifice or prophecy." Matt really wished that he was joking._

" _Oh, god. I hope not." said Henry as he shakes his head. "That would suck."_

 _Matt chuckles._

" _So, level with me. You guys need a sheriff. Why don't you hire from inside the town?" asks Matt the question that seem to need to be answer.  
_ " _Honestly. We need someone with experience. Someone like you. You have been sheriff over a town. You know how to do the job. You know how people can be. Good and the bad. Right now, we have some problems and we need help now." said Henry._

" _So, why me?"_

" _Why not?"_

" _No. Seriously." asks Matt._

" _You wouldn't believe me if I told you." said Henry.  
_ " _So, your mom did tell you the real reason." comments Matt._

" _What did she say to you?"  
_ " _She said that I had experiences that she needed."_

" _That is a big part of it. It is because I told her to offer you the job." said Henry. Matt looks at Henry._

" _You?"_

" _Remember, I helped her with the search. I look you up on Facebook and Twitter. I found old articles about you. Mom is old fashion. She really does not mess the computer or smartphone." Not really the answers that he had hope to hear._

" _What did you find out about me?" Matt hate to admit it, but he never goggle himself. It was something that never occurred to him. Now he wished he did. He wouldn't have been paranoid about the offer.  
_ " _Matthew Donovan. Quarterback for his high school for two years. Would have been an All American if he got better grades and did not take that job at the Mystic Grill. You were a bartender, waiter, and sheriff. Then something happened. You left. At this moment, I know that you need a change. Second chance if you will. I think this town would be the place for you to start over." said Henry with a smile, knowing the truth of Matthew Donovan._

" _You practiced that line, didn't you?" said Matt._

" _A little bit." said Henry with a small laugh. Matt chuckles._

" _I am not sold yet."_

" _I can introduce you to the sheriff." Henry stands up. Matt shakes his head._

" _Fine, but I am not agree to anything." Matt stands up from bench. "So, what is the deal with the town? Is there a coven of witches that live here?"_

" _No. It is something entirely different."_

" _Look, you seems nice, but honestly I need the truth. I can't even make a decision if I am in the dark about this place. I am not going through that again." said Matt. Matt hate to say that, but it is the truth. He is tired of being in the dark. He rather deal with the devil in front of him as opposed the devil hiding in the shadows._

 _Henry looks at him. Henry knows what Matt was hinting at. Henry takes a deep breath. He opens his satchel and take out a long thick blue book. He hands the book to Matt. Matt looks at the cover. It had gold lettering and it said "ONCE UPON A TIME.."_

 _Matt looks at Henry. Henry simply nods. Matt opens up the book. The first thing he saw is one picture. It was the Mayor in a costume. He had to look at Henry again._

" _What the hell?"_

" _Before you say anything, no that is not a photo album. Yes, My mom is the Evil Queen from the story about Snow White."_

 _Matt shakes his head in disbelief. He drops the book and start to back away from Henry._

 _"Look..I really don't have time for games. Tell your mom, thank but no thanks." said Matt as he walks away from the teenage boy. Matt's patience is gone and he did not want to hear the explanation._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

One year from now

Matt opens his eyes to see Lilly in front of him. She is tied up in chains which is attached to a water heater. She is awake and she did not look pleased being tied up. She is struggling in getting loose from the metal chains. Matt notices that there is a weird collar around her neck.

Matt tries to move. He feels weird and restraint. It did not take long for Matt to realizes that he is chained up to a large pipe that was connected to the floor. The more he looks around his surrounding, the more he realizes that he is in a basement. There is an old workbench with some tools on it. Unfortunately, the workbench is on other side of the basement. Far enough to mock the two deputies.

"What happened?" asks Matt.  
"We got tasered." reply Lilly.

"Crap!" It explains weird sensation he feels. He barely remember what has happened. He remembers that he was knocking on the door when he heard footstep. Matt remembers that he thought it was Lilly. That was the last thought he had before blacking out.

"Yep. It looks like that Walter's tip is good. Problem is that it was an ambush." said Lilly as she continues her struggle with the chain.

"Not good."

"You haven't heard the worst part." said Lilly with a smile. She stops struggling.  
"What?" ask Matt.

"They took your pants."  
Matt looks at his legs to see that he is not wearing any pants. He checks to be sure that he is wearing his blue boxer. Thankfully, he is.

"You have to be kidding me.."

"Nope. Thankfully, our kidnappers are gentlemen and left me with my pants on." smiles Lilly at the funny sight.

"They took my pants. They left me with my shirt on, but took my pants" said Matt in disbelief. "Wait. You still have your pants."

"Yep. They took our weapons, but they didn't do a good job searching me. Like I said, gentlemen." said Lilly with a smile.

Matt nods his head. He knew what that mean.

"How long?" asks Matt.

"Just got started when you woke up." said Lilly as she resume her struggles.

"What's with the collar?"  
"It suppress my ability to change into a dragon. First thing I tried to do when I woke up. By the way, you have one too." explains Lilly with a little frustrating coming out of her voice. Matt sighs at the development. "I bet it is a gift from Mr. Hyde. We are going to have to escape the old fashioned way."  
"Oh...they knew we were coming." said Matt.  
"Yep. Like I said, Walter set us up." said Lilly as they both stares at each other. Lilly stop for a moment with her struggle. "So, what is the deal with you and Tinkerbell?"

"What is the deal with you torturing everyone with the meow game?" counters Matt.

"You heard about that." said Lilly.

"Yeah. Everyone told me. They asked me to tell you to stop."

"Oh, that is nice of them." Lilly looks at Matt. She can tell that he was waiting for an explanation. "I got bored."

"That is a line of crap. You don't do anything because you are bored. When you get bored, you play Angry Birds. This is different." argues Matt.

"Well, what is the deal of you tensing up every time I say Tinkerbell's name?" deflects Lilly.

"I don't know what you are talking about." lies Matt.

"Bull and you know it. I am your partner. I know way too much about you not to notice these type of things." said Lilly. "I hate to tell you, but I am your best friend."

They both look at each other realizing it is true. Too much info made best friends out of each other. They eat together, drink together, and they watch each other back. They judges each other for the stupid things that they like or like to do. They even hang out with each other outside of the job.

Matt takes a deep breath.

"Tinkerbell got a promotion." said Matt.

"Really?" Lilly knew the surprised tone came out of her mouth. "Sorry, I am just surprises that nuns can get promotions.  
"Ever since Regina started to set up contingencies, Mother Superior realizes that she has been too close to death too many time to not have her own plan. If something ever happens to the Blue Fairy, Tinkerbell will take over. She will become the head fairy. It also means that she is taking more responsibilities now. The Blue Fairy is making sure that Tinkerbell is ready to take over at a moment's notice."  
"That's great."

"For Tinkerbell, yeah. It is great. She is getting what she deserved. She has been working hard to prove herself to them and herself."

"Why are you two not celebrating it by having dinner?" asks Lilly.  
"Because we can't date each other. I guess it is a fairy thing, but they can never really be with someone. It is literally like being a nun. You are married to the job and nothing else." Lilly looks at Matt and realize what actually happened. They broke up without actually having dated.  
"Oh my god, Matt. I didn't know."  
"Neither did I."  
"Why aren't you mad? You should be drowning your tears in beer right now."

"Because we only had lunch a few times. We really did not really date. We talked. We talked about her promotion. We talked about us. Because I only want the best for her. Because this is normal." said Matt.  
"That makes no sense."  
"Lilly, I just got back from seeing a warehouse filled with dead people that had the unfortunate luck of meeting two vampires and a demigod. Do you know how long ago it was that type of situation was normal for me? Not long enough. That type of crap was way too normal in my life that I couldn't even imagine a time that getting dumped by a woman would be considered a relief or a wonderful change of pace. But, it is. I am not being dumped for a century old vampire. I am being dumped for a job. Still not cool, but that is normal life. I so prefer that. She is doing something that she wants to do and that will make her happy. That is all I want for her. We had lunches. Nothing too serious, but that is it and will ever going to be. Am I frustrated. Yeah. After things get back to normal, I will drink until I puke in order to get her out of my system. But, I will remember that she like me enough to tell me it was not going to work. She told me the the truth. She is a nice person and if I get too stupid, that I have someone watching my back to keep me in line." explains Matt

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"But, I am still going to hate her." said Lilly. Matt smile. "It's part of my job as being your best friend."

"Ok. Just don't kill her or meow her." said Matt. Lilly chuckles at the bad joke.

They both look at each other. Lilly start to look at the ground. Matt smile a bit. Being a scary dragon bitch is what Lilly wants everyone to think about her. In reality, she is simply just a woman with walls to protect her from the big bad world.

"They are calling me the Anti Savoir." said Lilly.

"Say what?"

"Somehow it was leaked that Emma was going to be either the Savior or the Anti Savior. It also leaked out on how Prince Charming and Snow White put all that bad mojo into me to save their daughter. So, now everyone is whispering it now. It definitely does not help that my mom is Maleficent. Let's not forget about Aurora and her husband wanting to kill me and Mom. But it should not make a difference. I have been a deputy long enough to not have that title. I think I make a better sheriff than Emma, but I am still the Anti savior while she is the Savoir." explains Lilly.

"Are you lashing out?" ask Matt.

"I hate to say it, but yeah. I mean, I am good at my job but everyone looks at me differently than they look at Emma. So, yeah. I was bugging people while you were gone. I knew you would have been on my case if you were here."

"Yeah. I would have. You are a grown adult. You know what you were doing was immature because you did it out of your uniform."

"Didn't feel right if I did it in the uniform." said Lilly.

Matt can see that she is feeling a little bad about the situation. Mostly, he can tell that her feelings is hurt.

"Look. You will get there. It will take time. Trust me. People will stop looking at you based on the past or who is your mother. They will look at you for what you do and who you are. It took a long time before I was even accepted." said Matt.

"They love you the instant you walked into this town." counter Lilly.

"Not here." said Matt. "Mystic Falls."

"Really?"  
"Mom and Dad moved to Mystic Fall before Vicki and me were born. The problem was that we were not one of the founding family in that town. We were not part of Mystic Falls royalty. We didn't have that prestigious last name. Heck, there are some streets on that town named after the founding families. Not my family. We were just that white trash family that moved into town."

"I can't imagine that." said Lilly as she looks at her friend that she placed on a pedestal.  
"Yeah. It didn't help when mom left me and my sister to travel with Lollapalooza. Now, the Donovan family is a charity case. Only people that didn't look at us differently was the sheriff and the Gilberts. Although, everyone eased up on us when I started to play football." said Matt, remembering how everyone look at his sister and him.

"That's right. You were the quarterback of their high school team." Lilly remembers the many stories that Matt told her.

"Yeah. Everyone loves a winner. I became their golden boy after that. But, it cames out every so often, especially with Vic. God, she hated how they looked at her." said Matt as he could still see his last moments with his sister. "The point is that , it will take time, but they will get over that."

"Fine." Lilly looks at her partner. Everyday, she seems to know more about him. "But if they give me lip outside the uniform, I will give it back."

"That is fine. Just ease up on it." said Matt.

"Fine."

"I am wondering. Why the meow game?" asks Matt.

"Oh. I fell asleep while Super Troopers was on the television." said Lilly.

"Of course." Matt chuckles "So, how are we?"

The chains around Lilly's body loosen up. Lilly smiles as she shakes them off her body. The chain falls down on the floor. Lilly move the chains out of her way and stands up. She shows Matt her own tool and her black case. It had everything she need to pick a lock. A necessary tool for a former thief.

"Will Scarlet wishes he was me." Lilly gives a big smile. Matt could not help but smile.

"Let's get your chain off of you and you can remove this stupid collar." said Lilly.

"And find my pants." adds Matt.

 _Present_

 _Matt hates the feeling. This feeling has been happening more time than he like. It is the feeling of hope being squashing underneath life's feet._

 _He like the town. It seems nice. Like Tyler said, the benefit is simply too good to be true. Just having hope that there is something better is nice. What made it better is the thought that there is someone that wanted him. Someone who values what he is worth._

 _Seeing the book squashed that thought._

 _It was a joke played on the unsuspecting man. There was no other explanation for it. It was too ridiculous to be anything else but a joke. He is tired of the bullshit._

 _As Matt approaches his truck that is parked in an alleyway behind a bakery, he takes out his key. He heard footstep walking toward him._

 _Matt turns to see a man dresses in brown with a large scar on his face._

" _Hello." His voice is deep. It demands attention. Matt is pretty sure that the man is wear some sort of Victorian outfit._

" _Who are you?" ask Matt as he opens the truck door.  
_ " _I was going to ask the same question. I am Mr. Hyde."_

" _Matt." Matt looks at the man and did not like him. He could see his cane on the seat. The scar on his leg and his cane is what remain from the accident._

 _It did take Matt a while to walk properly. He was lucky. The car accident did not cause any permanent damage. He keeps the cane simply as a weapon. He places his focus on the man named Hyde._

" _You are not from Storybrooke, are you?" ask Hyde.  
_ " _No. Just visiting."  
_ " _Interesting."_

" _Not really."_

" _To me, it is. What is your business here?"  
_ " _Heard they made a good float at Granny's. Figured I should try it." Matt could feel it in his gut. In fact, it is screaming at him. The question was about what.  
_ " _A float?"_

" _Ice cream in a glass filled with coke-cola. You should try it sometime."_

" _No, thank you. This world seems obsessed over sweets. I find it not to my liking."_

" _Too bad. You are missing out."_

" _Well, you should be returning to wherever you are from. I will not keep you. I would hate it if something were to happen to you." That statement illuminate to Matt why his gut is scream and why he did not like the man at all.  
_ " _You are one of those." said Matt as he sigh in frustration._

" _Excuse me?"  
_ " _You are one of those people."_

" _What type of person am I?" ask Mr. Hyde.  
_ " _The kind that drinks wine and read literature because you think you are cultured when in reality, you prefer to crush someone's skull in." said Matt._

 _Hyde looks at Matt._

" _If I am what you describe, how wise is it to anger me?"  
_ " _Probably not wise. But I don't really care." The frustration in Matt needs a release. He is simply tired of those type of people.  
_ " _Well, then. How about I simply kill you and deliver your skull to Regina as per my original plan."_

" _You was going to do that anyway. You can try, but I am pretty sure you will regret it."_

" _I will take my chances." said Hyde as he start to approach Matt with intent._

 _Matt grabs his cane to defend himself. He slam the truck door and start to walk toward Hyde._

" _Don't take another step." commends a female voice._

 _Both men turn to see Emma Swan standing there pointing her gun at them. She is wearing her red jacket with a white blouse underneath. She is wearing black jeans._

" _Ms. Swann. How are you this fine day?" ask the man with the scar. Matt places his attention on the man. He did not want to find himself in a bad position because he was not paying attention.  
_ " _Step away from him. Now." commands Emma. Hyde simply sigh in frustration._

" _Are you really going to be difficult?" ask Hyde.  
_ " _Considering that you are acting like this is your town, yeah" said Emma. Hyde takes a good look at Emma. He let out a chuckle and start to walk away from Matt._

" _I have a deal."_

" _So, you keep saying. Like all those other times that you keep saying it, I will tell you the same thing: This town was not for his to deal with."  
_ " _Do not think that this issue is resolved." said Hyde._

 _Mr. Hyde reach inside his pant's pocket and toss out a small ball. The ball lands on the ground and let out a cloud of thick gray smoke. Matt steps away from the smoke. Emma and Matt watch as the thick smoke expands. Both of the individuals realizes what the smoke is for: It is for Mr. Hyde to escape._

 _Emma lowers her gun and let out a sigh of relief._

" _Are you ok?" ask Emma._

" _Yeah. Who was that?" ask Matt._

" _That was Hyde."  
_ " _Bad news?"  
_ " _Yeah. He is." The woman named Emma put her gun away. She then extends her hand out. "I'm Emma Swann. I'm the sheriff of Storybrooke."_

" _Matt."_

" _Nice to meet you. Welcome to Storybrooke."_

" _Well, I was just leaving town. Thanks anyway. I don't think this town and I are going to be a good fit."_

 _Emma could see Matt is freaking out a bit. She could not blame him. When she got the phone call from Henry, it did not take much for her to figure out what Henry did. It was why she was looking for Matt. She wanted to try and salvage the situation.  
_ " _Cmon. Let's talk. You can get a drink out of it." said Emma as she walk away. Matt look and close the truck's door. He really needs that drink._

 _He follows Emma to Granny's diner. They walks in and she took a seat at one of the booths. As if they knew what she wanted, the waitress put down to glass filled with beer. Matt simply sit down across the table from Emma._

" _So, what is the story?" ask Matt. It amuses Matt a lot that Granny's diner served alcohol. Something about a diner serving beer put a smile on his face._

" _So, you really want to know what is going on here?" ask Emma.  
_ " _Yeah. I want the truth or I will walk." Matt takes a sip from the beer.  
_ " _You probably will anyway." said Emma. "God know I tried to leave here a few time." said Emma._

 _Emma really did not want to have This conversation so soon. She hates to admit it: Emma did not want to scare Matt away from the town. She wanted to ease Matt into Storybrooke. Henry's attempt to persuade Matt ruin that. She can tell that Matt wanted the truth now._

 _Emma Swann really did not want to admit it, but she knows that she needs Matt's help. Even now, she is trying to resist the shaking in her hand. Ever since she saw her own death, Emma feels different. It is not good feeling. She is worrying more. She feels more afraid. Something that a Savior should not have._

 _When Regina announced plans in putting in safeguards for the town, Emma felt a little relieved. Getting another person to help out might ease her worries. She did not even debated about getting someone outside the town to help out. Emma knew that her judgement was clouded. She needed help. She just did not know what kind._

 _Looking at the candidate that Henry picked out, Emma could see that Matt might be the right person-better person at the sheriff position._

" _Really?"  
_ " _Technically, I am not from Storybrooke. I used to live in Boston. I used to chase after bail jumpers." explains Emma.  
_ " _Seriously?"  
_ " _Yep. I'm pretty good at it. Sheriff, not so much." said Emma as she sips her drink. "Henry told me that he showed you the book."  
_ " _Yeah. What is all that about?"  
_ " _I told him not to do that. The only reason that worked on me was the fact that he was a cute 10 year old. Even then, I really didn't believe him. Now, that he is a teenager, that trick is not going to work so much. But it's the truth."_

" _You are telling me that the Mayor was the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."_

" _Yep."_

" _Is that the only thing I have to worry about?"  
_ " _The guy that tried to assault you. That was Mr. Hyde as in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."  
_ " _Oh."_

" _Granny." Emma points at Granny, who is behind the counter talking to someone. "That is Granny from Little Red Riding Hood."_

" _OK."_

" _Short guys behind us. Do you see them?" Emma points out the seven guy eating their lunch._

" _Don't tell me that those guys are the Dwarves."_

" _Yep."_

" _Storybrooke. That is not a cute name for the town." figures Matt. Matt takes another drink from his beer, wondering how much he would need to deal with this new development._

" _Nope. Everyone here except four of us is a story book character."_

" _Oh….Wait. What four?" ask Matt_

" _Me, you, Henry and Lilly." said Emma as she counts her fingers. "But you are the only one that wouldn't have any ties with the town."_

" _How?..." ask Matt. There is no question. There is a lot of background information that he will need to research.  
_ " _Long story. I don't want to blow your mind up with it. Took me a while to absorb all of it." said Emma._

 _Matt leans back. His gut is telling him that this conversation is pretty honest._

" _OK….So,why me?"_

" _Regina said that we needed help and I agree. We are short handed with the type of situations that we have to deal with. It turns out Henry was the one that recommended you. I don't know why, considering you are not from here and what could happen if you stay."  
_ " _What could happened?" ask Matt.  
_ " _You may have to deal with magic." say Emma with a straight face.  
_ " _Oh." Matt chuckles.  
_ " _Oh?" Emma did not hide her surprise. She really did not expect Matt to be so casual with the idea of magic._

" _I have some experience with magic." said Matt._

" _Experience? Like how much?" ask Emma. It has only been recently that she discovered that the world outside of Storybrooke had magic. It is hidden but it did exist. Here is someone that knew about it, it surprises Emma a bit._

" _I don't know how to use it. But I know two things: I know that there is a price when you use magic and it hurts when it used against you." said Matt._

" _That is more than I had when I got here." said Emma with an impressed smile. "So, you are not going to freak out if you see a 7 foot tall raging snowman?"  
_ " _Probably, but I will try to figure something out." said Matt._

" _How about a dragon?" A brunette head pops up from behind Emma. Emma jumps a little because of the voice._

" _Jeez, Lilly!" said Emma as she tries to resist the urge to hit her._

" _I have no idea." reply Matt to the question. Lilly nods at the answer._

" _Lilly, what the heck are you doing here?" ask Emma.  
_ " _Saw you and thought what could you be talking about to the stranger. Curiosity got to me." Lilly turns to Matt. "By the way, I'm Lilly and who are you?"  
_ " _Matt." Matt recognizes her from yesterday. She was talking to her mother about babies names._

" _So, are you seriously considering living here because this place is simply crazy." asks Lilly._

" _I haven't made up my mind yet."  
_ " _If you want my opinion…" starts Lilly._

" _We don't." interrupts Emma as she got a tongue sticking out of Lilly's mouth as a response._

" _As I was saying, if you want my opinion, unless you are magical, don't stay." said Lilly. "This place may looking like Mayberry, but it can turn to a bad Game of Thrones episode really quickly."_

" _Jeez, you are a ray of hope." said Emma.  
_ " _Look. If it was not for my mom being here and other things, I probably wouldn't have stay."  
_ " _Didn't you say that you would stay for one week?"  
_ " _Yes, Emma. I did. Turns out when you accept the fact that you can become a raging ton of destruction, you have the ability to unconsciously turn into a dragon if you are not careful."_

" _That would not be good." said Emma.  
_ " _Considering that I have some issues to work on, no it is not. Mom have been helping me get it under control. Not to mention, the therapist has help a lot. So, I am sticking around for a bit." explains Lilly. "Beside, I can throw fireballs now."_

" _Seriously?" said Emma, who is wondering when this happened._

" _Yeah...I know. Ain't it cool?"  
_ " _Not cool, Lilly."  
_ " _Deal with it." said Lilly._

" _Seriously, this is not a game."_

" _I know that it is not a game. I am a dragon, Emma. I got to know what it means to be a dragon and everything that come with being a dragon. Did you know that if I don't turn into a dragon at least once a month, I get very emotional."_

 _Lilly stops and looks at Matt._

" _Don't say a word." said Lilly at Matt, who simply nod and take another drink from his beer._

" _Fine. I really don't have time for this. Where have you been staying?" ask Emma accepting the fact that she could never control Lilly when they were younger and she still wouldn't be able to now._

" _Living with mom, out of that house in the field by the fairies' nunnery."_

" _I thought that house was abandoned."_

" _It was. Mom got it from Regina before you guys went on that tour of Camelot and Hades."_

 _Emma sighs._

" _We have been gone that long, haven't we?"  
_ " _Seriously, you guys got to do something. People are talking. Dwarves are good for a temporary fix on the sheriff situation but people are not liking it. Richard is thinking about getting a recall on you, Regina and the Charmings. After that King Arthur incident and now Hyde and his people, he might get his chance."_

 _Emma looks at Matt._

" _That is why he is here." said Emma._

" _Gotcha." said Lilly. "Nice to meet you. Ignore everything I just said."_

 _Lilly gets up from her spot and walks away. Matt looks at the women, now getting a better pictures of the situation._

" _Look..we got some issues. Some issues are more complicated than we like. Too complicated to even get into in one day. But, Lilly is right. Some of those issue gets me away from the town for long period of time. We can't have that anymore. The town deserve better. You got experience and that is what we need. Since you dealt with magic before, you would be perfect for this town. I guess what I am saying is that we need someone like you in our town." said Emma._

" _What about those issues? What are you dealing with?"_

" _Let's order lunch and drinks. Lots of drinks. This will take a little bit." said Emma as she signals Granny._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

One year from now

"You really shouldn't have hit them so hard." comments Lilly.

Matt looks at the three unconscious men who are handcuffed on the floor. There were only three men in the house that were guarding them. Once Lilly and Matt were able to unlocked the basement door, they had no problems in dealing with the men.

Considering that he had to deal with vampires, normal people does not pose a challenge. Having someone who is a dragon does help.

"They tasered me and took my pants." said Matt as he fights the urge to kick them. Unfortunately, the three men did not have Matt's pants.  
"Yeah, but we need to know what Hyde is planning." mentions Lilly as she try to be the voice of reason.

"Let's look and see what we can find." Matt looks at them and gives them a kick for good measure. He can still feel the sting from the taser. Matt walks away from the three men and start looking for any clue on what were their plans.

As Matt start looking around the house, he realizes something. The house is barren. There are only some chairs and tables. However, there is no computer, TV, sofa or pictures on the wall. It had only the bare essential. There is no carpet on the floor. The curtains that is hanging by the window are the light blocking kind. Matt looks out of the window. Quiet neighborhood. He wonders if anyone saw anything. Since there was no for sale sign outside, the house has to belong to someone.

Since Lilly has the kitchen and bathroom, Matt walks upstairs to the second floor. The second floor simply follows suit. Barren walls with only the bare necessities of a bed and lamp. Matt smiles as he saw his pants folded up on the bed.

He takes his pants and put them on. He smiles now that he had pants on. Now, he had to keep an eye for his gun. He walk over to the bedroom's window. He look outside. The only thing that Matt can see is the next door neighbor's backyard. Matt walk away from the window and walk toward the bathroom.

As Matt looks into the bathroom, the bar of soap and toothbrush are the only things in the bathroom. Matt starts to wonder where the three men were getting the basic supplies as he notices the toilet paper has ran out.

"Matt!" yells out Lilly from the downstairs. Matt runs to his partner, who is in the kitchen downstairs. The kitchen is like the rest of the house. Barren. There is a refrigerator and a microwave. There is a small table. Matt breath a sigh of relief when he saw their guns laying on the table. Lilly is taking out a rolled up blueprint from the trash.

"Thank god for stupid people." said Lilly. Matt takes the guns off the table as she lays the blueprint out on the kitchen table. Matt use the guns to keep the blueprint from rolling up.

"What the hell is this?" ask Matt as he looks at the blueprint.

"I can't make heads or tails out of this." said Lilly as she stare at the blueprint.

Matt looks at it.

"You are holding it upside down."  
"You think?" said Lilly as she moves the blueprint in the right way. Matt and Lilly looks at the blueprint. "It looks familiar."

"Yes, it does." said Matt as he looks at the print. The design is precise. The lines is clean. The machine looks very steam punk. The more he looks at the design of this machine, the more it looks familiar. It look more like Santa sled than anything else. Once he saw the name on the lower right hand corner of the blueprint, his heart skips.

"Look." said Matt as he points out the name. Lilly place her focus on what Matt is pointing at.

"Whoa." said Lilly when she realizes what the name actually meant. "That can't be right."  
"I am betting you that it is." said Matt as he slowly step away from the blueprint. "That is why it is so familiar."

The two friends looks at the plan.

"That is impossible." said Lilly as she takes the gun off the blueprint and let it roll up by itself. It finally occur to her what the blueprint is for. "He is not a character. He's real."

"Vic did a book report on it. One of the few times that she took something seriously. The report was about this." Matt pointed the blueprint. "The main character never had a name, Lilly."

"But that is impossible.." said Lilly as she hands Matt's gun to him.

"Says the woman who can turn into a dragon." points out Matt as he takes his gun. Both individuals secure them in their hostler.

"That is magic." Lilly looks at the plan. She take a big deep breath. "This is different."

"OK….Let's stop being Scully and be more like Mulder." said Matt.

"Fine."

"This is a game changer."

"Duh… Imagine what you can do with it."  
"Imagine what Hyde can do with it." said Matt.

"Crap." said Lilly. "This is not good. He could do some serious damage."

"Yeah. Let's not even get into the fact that now we have to worry about the Evil Queen and the Dark One. Imagine what they could do with this? I mean this is forbidden in magic. Here is your loophole around that."

"Matt." said Lilly. "What if it does not work?"

"What?"

"I mean what would happen if that.." Lilly points at the blueprint. "..does not work. What would you think could happen?"

Matt looks at the roll up blueprint. Dealing with magic for so long, Matt never let that thought enter his mind.

"We already know what could happen if it works. Obviously, it could do some damage. But what if something goes wrong. Seriously, something like that. I am betting you that it would do some serious damage." said Lilly.

Matt looks at the house and his heart is starting to race.

"If they are building it, they would have to have some place to secure it. You can't have everyone in town knowing about it. You would have to make sure that no one else would know." said Matt as he tries to figure this out. "Just building it would make some noise. I bet they never built it here. Not to mentions what you would need to build it. That is why they got Walter's passes. It would be too obvious that you were up to something if you bought the stuff here. Someone would talk."

"They must not have done a test run yet. After all, Walter sends us here to get captured. I am betting you that they will make a test run here today." said Lilly  
"We got to find it before they do their test run." said Matt as he start to walk toward the front door with Lilly following him.

"Needle in the haystack." said Lilly. "My favorite part of this job."

 _Present_

 _Hyde walks up to the porch of the house. For the person that lives in the house, Hyde did not expect this. The house is neat and trim. Nothing looks broken. It look like the other houses in the town._

 _Mr. Hyde did not expect this person to adapt so quickly to Storybrooke. He made friends, found a house, and started a process of setting up a business._

 _Hyde did take several deep breaths. Unlike most individuals that he had encountered, this man is not someone he can take on. He is not a man that is intimidated by Mr. Hyde. Even though he is much older than Hyde, the man is not someone Hyde wanted to get into a fight._

 _Thankfully, they had an arrangement._

 _Hyde knocks on the door. As Hyde waits, he could hear the old man stomping his feet in anger. He could hear the rumbles from the door._

 _The old man opens the door and did not hide his disappointment on seeing Hyde._

" _What are you doing here?" said the old man. The old man had a lot more gray hair than his natural black hair. White hairs are showing on his mustache and on his unshaven face. His face show his age, but the old man did not care. The muscles on his body shows that he was more fit than men half his age. His voice is deep and commands respect._

" _Abraham, it has been a while." said Hyde with a small smile._

" _The doctor left you off your leash again?" ask Abraham as he motions Hyde in._

" _The doctor is no longer a part of me." corrects Hyde as he walks in._

" _Too bad. He was really the best part of you." said Abraham as he closes the door._

 _The living room is bare other than a chair and a coffee table. Hyde stop as he look at the gold hourglass that is on a coffee table._

" _It's moving." remarks a concern Mr. Hyde._

" _Of course it is moving. You brought me here. My time has started up again since you brought me over to this land." said a frustrated Abraham. He did not bother to hide his frustration over Mr. Hyde's ignorance. "He knows that I am alive."_

" _I'm sorry." said Hyde in a rare instance of regret._

" _You should be. When he finds me, you better keep your end of the arrangement and help me. The only reason why I stay in the Land of Untold Stories was to put a pause on that hourglass. I needed time to find my replacement."_

" _That is why I am here. I think I have found someone." said Mr. Hyde as he looks at Abraham.  
_ " _Someone for me to kill for you." corrects Abraham.  
Hyde look at the old man with a shock expression._

" _You really think that I am stupid? I know what you have been doing. You have been sending me people that you want eliminated pretending that they were suitable candidate." said the old man as he stares at the hourglass._

" _So, why do you do it?"  
_ " _I am waiting for you to screw up." answers Abraham._

" _Well, here is your next person." said Hyde as he hands Abraham a picture._

" _I will do this one for you, but you better start getting serious." said Abraham. "I am getting old and weaker. He is not. Without someone like me, you will lose so much if He comes around."  
_ " _Do not worry. This place has heroes. I am sure we can find someone more suitable." answer Hyde as he heads out the door._

" _Heroes? Ha!" said the Abraham. "I will not believe it until I see it."_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 _Present_

 _The next morning did not give Matt much comfort. All he can hear is Penny's voice telling him to get out and live his normal life. After his conversation with Emma Swann, he knows that this town is not going to give him that and that he should leave._

 _The question is why didn't he?_

 _Matt keeps replaying the conversation in his head. Based on her point of view, Emma told him everything. She didn't lie to him. What she told Matt was definitely enough to make anyone leave out of the town like a Meatloaf song._

 _She told him about how the town used to be cursed. How the Mayor was really the Evil Queen. How she changed. Emma told him how she got into this crazy town and how she was connected. She told him that the stories that he knew were not completely accurate. She also told him how the town seems to attract…trouble._

 _In other words, what Matt may have to deal with if he accepted the sheriff._

 _Emma did say something that did made him glad that he talked to her as opposed to the Mayor._

" _This is a wonderful place to live. Everyone in town are hardworking decent people. But I have family here. So, I am probably not going to leave. You can. So seriously think about it. I want you here, but this place is a lot to handle. No one will blame you for not accepting the job. After all, you don't have any powers."_

 _Matt can not help but wonder: What can he do in a town filled with magical villains?_

 _It has been the question since he left Mystic Falls. What can he do?_

 _Matt knew the answer. The answer was what made him left Mystic Falls. The problem Matt is having is why hasn't he left Storybrooke?_

 _With that question hanging over his head, Matt could not get any sleep. His mind rewinds to all of his failures as he stare at the ceiling in his motel room bed. For a person that had so much potential in high school, all Matt can see was how he failed as an adult. His failures are simply proof that he could not be sheriff to this town. The list seems to be growing._

 _Once the sun came up, he had to get out of his room._

 _He puts on his running gear and start to run._

 _Matt did not care if Mr. Hyde try to kill him again. Matt did not care if he saw Sister Green. Matt wants to do something to clear his head before making a decision on his future._

 _Matt runs down the main street of the town. He runs past the harbor and the docks. He runs into the forest. As the town slowly comes to life, Matt simply focus on the road ahead._

 _Matt finally stop running at the edge of the town's limit._

 _He look at the sign stating "YOU ARE LEAVING STORYBROOKE." He stare at the sign as he catches his breath. At that spot, Matt decides on one thing: Today, he is going to see something extraordinary._

 _Matt runs back to his room, takes a shower, and get dressed. He picks up some coffee and a map of the town from Granny, walks to his truck and drives out to the fields. Matt drives until he sees a woman looking up at the sky in a field._

 _Without giving it a second thought, Matt press on the brakes on his truck. He stares at the woman. He grabs the map that is on the passenger's seat. He looks for an idea on where he is. Matt can sees that he is not far from the convent. Matt start to scan the area. Once he sees the house off on the distance, Matt smiles. He look back at the woman._

 _She is staring at the morning skies as if she is expecting something to see. Matt drives his truck off to the side of the road, parks his truck, and get out of truck. He walks towards her. As he got closer, Matt realize that it was not who he thought it was._

" _Hello." said the woman as she stare at the sky. Matt see the classic 1930 look.. He remembering seeing her at the diner the other day._

 _Matt was hoping to find Lilly. If there is anyone who would be able to help him in look for something extraordinary, she may help him without any question._

" _Hi." answers Matt as he looks up at the sky. "What are you looking at?"  
_ " _Looking for my daughter." reply the woman as she pause to look at Matt. "You must be Matthew."_

" _Yeah." said Matt. "How do you know?"  
_ " _Regina." answers the woman._

" _Who has she not told?"  
_ " _I am an old friend of her." said the woman to answer Matt's question. "You can call me Maleficent."_

 _Matt looks at the woman as he try to keep his heart from bursting out of his chest. He did not know how he should feel. After all, she did gave the 5 year old version of himself nightmares. Matt places his focus on the morning sky, trying to keep his composure._

" _You're Lilly's mom." said Matt after a stretch of silence._

" _Yes. How do you know?" ask Maleficent._

" _I met her in the diner yesterday. She mentioned that she's a dragon."  
_ " _Yes..." She waits for the explanation on how Matt figured out that Lilly is her daughter._

" _So, I figured that if you can change into a dragon, that she had to be your daughter."_

" _Fair assumption." Maleficent looks at Matt. "You should stay."_

" _Excuse me?"_

" _Lilly mention that you had a conversation with Emma Swann about taking the sheriff's position. She must have explained this town's situation here."_

" _Yes."_

" _Well. My opinion is you should stay." said Maleficent.  
_ " _Ok. Why?" He is curious. After all, she really did not have thing to gain or lose if he stay._

" _I don't know." said the woman looking for her daughter in the sky. "It is just a feeling."_

 _Matt shakes his head. He really was hoping for more than that._

" _I don't know. I have been over it in so many ways in my head. It come back to the one important question: What can I do to actually help? I don't have magical powers. How can I protect anyone against something or someone with magical powers?" Matt did not want to add the fact that this question has been in his head for a long time._

 _Maleficent takes another look at Matt and smile. She places her attention back at the sky._

" _Knights would look for my kind. They would challenge us without any regard of their own safety. When one really thinks about it, it is stupid to go against something that is bigger and stronger than you. Most of them would die. However, there are a few that did kill some of my kind." said Maleficent. She turns to Matt. "They did not have any power other than the sword by their side and the wits inside of the brains."_

 _Matt looks at her._

" _Let that ponder in your mind as you make your decision." said Maleficent with a smile. "I can hear her now."_

 _She looks up at the sky. Matt looks up to see a dot. Matt is wishing for binoculars to see the dot._

 _Without warning, he could hear the sound of wings flapping. The dot grows bigger. Within seconds, Matt see something that he never thought he would see._

 _A dragon flying in the sky._

 _Yep, there is the extraordinary thing he wants to see._

 _The dragon slowly land on the ground. Matt could feel the ground shake underneath his feet. No matter how softly a dragon lands, everyone will know that a dragon is landing. The dragon is the largest thing Matt has seen in his entire life._

 _As if it won a fight, the dragon rise his head and look up at the sky and lets out a yell._

 _Maleficent looks at Matt, who is fixated on the dragon, and she smiles at the man._

 _As quickly it landed, a puff of smoke covers the dragon. Matt watches as the smoke dissipates to reveal Lilly Page kneeling on one knee on the ground. She is wearing a t shirt and jeans. Lilly is breathing heavily. She looks up and see Matt._

" _What are you doing here?" ask Lilly Page. She did not bother hiding her confusion._

" _You're dragon!" said Matt as he process what he just saw.  
_ " _No kidding." said Lilly as she stand up from the ground._

" _Seriously! I know you said it, but it never really registered!" said Matt. Lilly smiles._

" _I get it. Like the Grand Canyon. They tell you it is huge and beautiful but you really don't get it until you actually see it." Lilly walks up to Matt._

" _Yeah."_

" _So, what do you think? Scary enough for you?" ask Lilly.  
_ " _Yeah. Plenty."  
_ " _So, why aren't you running away?" asks Lilly as she stares at Matt.  
_ " _Because he is a knight." said Maleficent with a smile. "They tend to be stupid."_

 _Matt looks at Maleficent and realize that the woman from the fairy tales just made a joke. It is not meant to be mean spirited. Matt allows himself to smile.  
_ " _I guess I am." said Matt. Lilly lets out a laugh as she shakes her head. Her mom making a joke is a rarity for Lilly to hear._

 _The whissing sound that Matt hears interrupt the laughter._

 _He start to look around only to see Lilly collapsing onto the ground. The second whizzing sound sound like it pass him. Matt see Maleficent collapsing onto her knees with a small dart on her neck._

 _Matt start to look around for the attacker, wishing that he did not leave his gun in the truck. Footstep running toward him alerts Matt. By the time it registered where the footsteps were coming from, Matt felt a blow on the back of his head._

 _Matt collapses onto the ground unconscious, not seeing his attacker._

 _Matt opens up his eyes to a painful headache. He can feel the grass on his left cheek as he lie on the ground. He really did not want to be awake at this moment. Whatever is going on, it can not be good. The headache is the simple proof of that. Still, he had to._

 _Matt rolls onto his back to see blue sky with fluffy cloud. As he sits up, Matt sees that he is sitting a small landing with some grass. He approaches the edge to see that the plateau that he is on is unusually high. In fact, he could not see the ground because of some clouds are covering up._

" _It is a long way down." said a deep voice._

" _Crap." said Matt under his breath. He remembers that he got hit in the head. He really did not know who was his attacker, but he did not care. He moves himself away from the edge and stands up to confront his attacker._

 _The old man is standing in the middle of a rope bridge that looks like it had better days. Even on its better days, Matt figures that it was not that reliable. The problem is that the bridge is the only exit from the plateau. It is attached to another plateau that had to be a football field length away._

 _The old man is wearing a black long coat. Matt did not know why the old man had leather pants and black shirt. Matt wonder what the coat was concealing._

" _Where am I?" yells out Matt._

" _This is the Bloody Bridge!" yells out the old man as he walks toward Matt. Matt can see the salt and pepper hair. His face has not been shaven for a while._

 _Matt instinctively go for his gun, only to realize that he left it in his truck._

" _Your pistol is still in your truck." said the old man confirming what Matt thought._

 _Matt simply watches as the older man continue to walk toward him._

" _I have to say, Hyde screwed up." said the older man with a smile. Matt could feel his blood boil at the sound of Hyde's name. He does not know what he did to Hyde, but right now, Hyde is making Matt's life very difficult._

" _Hyde sent you to kill me."  
_ " _That was his plan." said the old man named Abraham. "Long time ago, I met his alter ego, Dr. Jekyll. He needed my help in containing the monster within. Unfortunately, I was no help to him at the time. Being a drunk and all. Then I met Hyde. He offered me help. He would find a way to stop my problem. Of course, it was all a ruse in order for me to do his bidding. But, today he screwed up."_

" _What do you mean?"  
_ " _He did not know that you were wearing a ring. " Abraham points to Matt. At first, Matt did not know what the old man is talking about. He look at his hands. Once he sees the ring on his left hand, Matt realize what the old man is talking about: The Gilbert Ring._

" _He does not realize that you are wearing a hunter's ring." said the old man. Matt looks at the old man._

 _The ring hadn't work in years. Ever since the destruction of the Other Side, the ring was really a tricket now. Matt wore it out of habit now._

" _Sure the ring is incomplete, but it told me so much about you." said the old man._

" _What do you mean by incomplete?"  
The old man smiles at Matt._

" _The spell that created your ring only linked it up to one limbo. Something tells me that you know it can't work if there is no limbo to attached it."_

 _Matt looks at the ring._

" _So, I made sure that it is linked up to all limbos."_

 _Matt looks at the old man._

" _Didn't you know? There is more than one limbo. There are so many places that the dead can resides." The old man smiles._

" _For example, this place." The old man extends his arms as if he is showing Matt a car. "This is a hunter's limbo. This is where all the hunters go when they die. Think of it as Valhalla. This is our price in order to have the power to beat the monsters out there. We don't move on to see our loved ones. We come here."_

 _Matt starts to look around. He could feel it now. Matt might not see them, but they were there. He could feel the eyes looking at his direction. He places his focus back on the old man._

" _Who are you and what do you want with me?" ask Matt.  
_ " _Who I am is not important. What I am is. I am like you. A hunter." answers Abraham._

" _I am not a hunter." said Matt._

" _The ring says otherwise."_

" _A friend of mine gave that to me. It does not mean that I am a hunter."_

" _You are right. It does not make you a hunter. It does tell me that you know what is out there. Sure, you can tell me that someone gave it to you. That says a lot about you because no one gives this ring up unless someone does not care about you. But that is not why I don't believe you. You said that you were not a hunter. You are not referring to deer.." said the old hunter with a smile as if that made his point.  
_ " _Again what do you want with me?" ask Matt.  
_ " _I want you to take my place." said the old man as he stop at the edge of the bridge._

" _No." said Matt without hesitation._

" _Really. Why not?"_

" _Because every hunter that I know has died in a very horrible way. Considering that I don't want that and I have my own plans that does not involve vampires or other supernatural events that could get me killed, I think I will pass on the offer." said Matt._

 _The old hunter smile bigger._

" _You said vampires." said the old man known as Abraham._

" _Yeah. No sense in denying it to you that I know about vampires and werewolves and witches."  
_ " _You know what I think?"  
_ " _No."  
_ " _I think you are full of it." said Abraham as he confronts Matt about the truth. Matt stand up from the ground and stares at the old hunter._

" _What other plans do you have?" said the old hunter. "Answer that to me."_

 _Matt simply stare at the old man._

" _You know the problem with dealing with vampires and other supernatural things. You can never go back. No matter how much you try. No matter how far you go. It does not matter if you have a house with the picket fences with apple pie baking in the oven. You will always know the signs. You will always see what is out there even if you don't want to. If this tell me anything.."_

 _The old hunter toss an object on Matt's feet. Matt look down to see the old badge that he had in his truck._

" _...it means that you will try to help anyone that is in trouble. I know who I am talking to even if you want to deny it yourself."_

 _Matt bent down and pick up the badge. He forgot to give it back to the mayor at Mystic Falls. When he realize that, he simply stuff it in the his truck's compartment and forgot about it._

" _You can try to fool yourself. You can say you want a normal life. You can tell whatever lies you want. But you know who you are deep down. You want to protect people. You want to help people. Whatever made you doubt yourself, it doesn't really matter. You swore to protect and serve. What I am offering is the means to do that. I am not offering some stupid title. I am offering you the power to be their equals I am offering you power to protect people from all the nasty things that are out there."_

 _Matt puts the badge in his pocket and place his focus back on the old hunter._

" _Beside, if you want to leave here alive, you have to be my replacement."  
_ " _There is a test, isn't there?" ask Matt, knowing that he is going to hate the answer._

" _Yep. You just got to cross this bridge." said Abraham as he slowly take a step back._

" _Let me guess, you are going to try and stop me." said Matt._

" _Not only that, I am going to try and kill you."_

" _Of course you are." said Matt. "I am betting the ring wouldn't work here since this is a limbo._

 _Abraham nods his head in agreement._

" _I cross this bridge or I die. I don't have any choice in the matter." deducts Matt.  
_ " _You really don't." said the old man. "If it makes you feel better, I am rooting for you."_

 _Matt shakes his head in frustration. He look at the old man._

 _He did not want to admit it, but the old man was right. No matter what is going on, Matt will always want to help. That will never change. It is the reason why he came to Storybrooke. He wants to be sheriff again. He want to protect and serve._

 _He also can't forget about vampires, werewolves, witches...and dragons. He doesn't want too. Ignorance was not bliss when he lost his sister. Matthew Donovan did not want anyone else experience that._

 _Matt know that he really did not have any choice._

 _He then takes a step forward to try and cross the bridge._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

One year from today

Matt drives the truck with the sirens on, while Lilly explains to Emma what had happened at the house.

She told Emma on how they got a tip from Walter. She told Emma on how they got ambushed. Emma skipped the part where Matt lost his pants, but explained on how they got out of their predicament. She also told her what they found in the kitchen trash can.

"Are you kidding me?" said Emma.

"Wish I was."  
"OK." Lilly could hear Emma sighing in frustration. "Me and David are finishing up here at the Hat. Couple of guys started a fight. I am betting you that that is not an accident."

"I am betting you that you will get nothing from them." said Lilly.

"You are right. Either it was a coincidental or they got hired to start a fight. Either way, it would be a waste of time to questioned them. Something like this is not something you want to talk about."

"If it works, who knows what people would do to get a hold of it." said Lilly.

"Nothing good. Trust me. I already dealt with it before. Don't want to do it again.." said Emma. "Ok. Here is what is going to happen. I get Dad to put our drunken brawlers in a cell while I get everyone involved. We will start a full blown search on all the abandoned buildings."

"We figured that there might be a test run. Since we got jumped, I am betting money that it is going to happen today." explains Lilly.

"Ok. I will get a list and start looking." said Emma. "I'll get Hook to start the docks. I'll get Regina to pull up the listing of all the vacant buildings and homes."  
"Matt said that the homes are off the list unless they have a barn. Making something like this would make some noise."  
"That makes sense. The advantage of living in a town: Everyone will know what your business is if you are not careful. So, neighborhoods are out. That will narrow the search down. What are you going to do?" ask Emma.

"Matt said that he got a few places that he wanted to check out." said Lilly.

"Keep me updated. I'll call you when we get the list from Regina." said Emma. She hangs up the phone. Lilly put her cell phone in her pocket.

"Well, that went well." said Lilly.

"Let's just focus on the finding that machine." said Matt.

Lilly simply nods, hoping they were not too late.

 _Present_

" _Are you alright?" asks Emma as she rushes over to the fallen women in the field._

 _Emma got a call from Granny, telling her that Matt went out for a drive. Wondering what he was thinking about the job offer, she decided to press her luck and went out to find him. She also decided to drive out and check on Lilly to be sure that everything was ok. With everything that has been going on, checking on two dragons just seem like a good plan. When she saw Matt's truck parked on the side of the road, Emma pulled her yellow bug in front of the truck. She got out of the bug and started to scan the area. When Emma saw the two women on the ground, she contacted her dad and rushed over to see if they were alright. Luckily, both women was slowly stirring back to conscious. Out of habit, Emma checked on Lilly first._

 _Lilly opens her eyes. It takes her a moment to realize that she is laying on the ground. She slowly start to get up from the ground._

" _Just angry." answers Lilly. She looks for her mother. Maleficent is slowly sitting up. Emma takes Lilly's hand to help her on her feet.  
_ " _That is the dragon in you." answers Maleficent. "You will start to take things personal now."_

" _Seriously?"  
_ " _Sorry. The more you embrace the dragon in you, the more you will be a dragon. Even in human form, you will have the strong desire to rip someone's' heart out just for chewing their food loudly." said Maleficent. "Why do you think that dragons live far away from people? We do like our peace and quiet._

" _So, I should avoid Emma's parents." said Lilly. Emma did not hide her distaste over the joke._

" _If you have lingering resentment, yes." Maleficent did not catch the joke, but took the statement seriously. She simply sit on the ground, trying to shake the after effects of being drugged._

" _I would really appreciate it if you don't kill my parents." said Emma as she helps Lilly stable herself on her two feet._

" _I am not going to do that." said Lilly. "I just want to know who just drugged us and use their head as a bowling ball."_

 _Emma looks at her friend._

" _Dragon is talking." answers Lilly_

" _I am wondering who can take you two down." ask Emma._

" _A Hunter." said Maleficent as she scan the area. She see her hat off to the side. She stretches to grab the hat. She shakes the dirt of the hat._

" _Mind explaining why I hear a capital H in that word." said Emma as she let go of Lilly. Lilly slowly walks over to her mother, who places the hat on her head. Lilly extends her hand to her._

" _Legends has it that a Hunter can kill anything. Gods, dragons, witch. They are meant to be the answer to stopping monsters. The problem was that they are not like knights. They owe their loyalty to no one and had no honor. They tend to be very dangerous. They also have everything they need to stop anything. Only they would have the tranquilizers to put down a dragon." Maleficent take her daughter's hand and slowly got up to her feet._

" _Not liking where this is heading." said Lilly._

" _It was a legend. No one has seen one in hundred of years. Ever since the appearance of the Dark one….." said Maleficent as she start to wonder about this new train of thought._

" _Let me guess, that is when everyone stop hearing about the Hunter." said Emma._

" _Yes. I believe so." Maleficent slowly just dusting off the dirt from her clothes. Emma looks up at the sky. It did not surprise her that the Dark Ones keeps coming up in different situations. Her memories from being the Dark One had not completely fade away from her mind. But it was not complete. After all, there were numerous Dark Ones before Rumpelstiltskin. She could not hope to remember it all._

" _Worry about that later. Question is why are you not dead?" ask Emma.  
_ " _Good point. According to legends, Hunters would go for the kill. He only used tranquilizer to knock us out." said Maleficent._

" _Where is Matt?" ask Lilly as she start to scan for Matt Donovan._

 _All three women start to look around in the area for an unconscious Matt._

" _Matt's the target." said Emma. "You two was simply in the way."_

" _I am pretty sure that it can't be good." points out Lilly. Emma start to walk away from Lilly and back to her yellow bug. Lilly couldn't help herself. She starts to follow. Maleficent start to walk away from them and toward a lone tree in the field._

" _No, it is not. Hyde tried to kill Matt, yesterday. I doubt that it is a coincidental that Matt got kidnapped today. I already call David. He is on his way. I'll text Regina. We are going to need all the help we can get." explains Emma._

" _How are you going to find him?" ask Lilly._

" _I'll figure something out." said Emma as she opens the door to her yellow bug. She grabs her cell phone that is sitting on the passenger seat._

 _Maleficent grabs something by the tree and walk toward the women._

" _Seriously?" said Lilly. "How are you still the sheriff?"_

" _Lilly." said Emma as she looks straight at her. "Not now."  
_ " _Here is something that could help." said Maleficent. Both women look at her. Maleficent extends her hand that had a cellphone._

" _OK. I'll bite. Why do you have a cellphone?" ask Emma as she start to text to Regina on what has happened._

" _Why wouldn't I?"  
_ " _Magical being." reply Emma._

" _Magic will not give you video or pictures of your loved one." answers Maleficent. "It can freeze them but that defeat the purpose."_

" _Are you taking my pictures?" asks Lilly._

" _Videos of our training sessions." answers Maleficent.  
_ " _Why?"  
_ " _I missed your first step and your first words. I am not going to miss your first steps of becoming something better." said Maleficent._

 _Lilly simply stare at her mother, lost for words._

 _Emma nods. She can understand that._

 _She missed all the important moments in Henry's life. When Emma got a second chance with him, she made sure that she took a lot of pictures. Even with the memory changes, somehow she knew that she did not want to miss any of his moments. For that one year of normality, Emma made sure that she did not miss a moment. Henry does not know that there is a book filled with pictures of him hidden underneath the back seat of the yellow bug._

" _It was recording today."_

" _Ok. That is good. We can at least have a picture of who we are looking for." said Emma as she takes the phone from Maleficent._

 _All three start to look at the phone as Emma pulls up the video and start playing it._

" _Fast forward a little bit. Matt does not come into the picture until after Lilly has flown away." said Maleficent._

 _Emma moves the video forward until she see Matt walking up to Maleficent._

" _Wow." said Emma._

" _Are you checking him out?" said Lilly._

" _NO!" said Emma._

" _Focus." said Maleficent. The two women alway seems to go backward in maturity when they were within proximity from each other._

 _They watch as Lilly in dragon form appears._

" _Holy crap!" said Emma. "You landed in front of him."  
_ " _I know. It is weird that he did not leave screaming." said Lilly._

" _Here it comes." said Maleficent._

 _All three ladies watch as the video shows the women collapsing on the ground. Matt then collapse on the ground. The old man approach the unconscious individuals._

" _Hello, Mystery man." said Emma._

" _I never seen him before." comments Maleficent._

" _He must have come over from the Land of Untold Stories." said Emma._

 _They watches as the older man picked up Matt and place him over his shoulder._

" _He's strong." said Lilly._

 _The older man turns away from the camera. What appear in front of him is a portal._

" _That is different." said Lilly as she watches the man walk in the portal and disappear._

" _Great." said Emma in annoyances. "Instead of looking for Matt in town, now we have to find him in a different dimension."_

" _What happened?" said a voice. All three women turns to see Regina standing behind._

" _Your guy got kidnapped by a Hunter." said Emma. "He somehow open up a portal and took Matt away."_

 _Regina starts to rub her head like she is developing a headache._

" _If I was evil, none of this would matter." said Regina._

" _You know as a ruler that if there is a problem and you don't solve it now, it will just come back again. You know like Snow White." said Maleficent to illustrates that it did not matter if Regina was good or evil. A problem is still a problem._

" _I know." said Regina. "Where did the portal appear?"  
Emma looks at the phone to replay the video. She looks at the phone and then looks at the spot. She starts to walk toward the spot. After a few step, Emma stops._

" _It might be right in front of me." said Emma. Regina extend her hand and a wand appear. She walks over to Emma._

" _You have the Apprentice's wand?" ask Emma._

" _Zelena gave it to me last night. Her daughter was crying and she was driving her up the wall." said Regina. "She didn't want to zap her little daughter into Oz."_

 _What Regina did not know was how Zelena got the wand back. It was something that Regina was trying to figured out today. Snow White told her how Zelena lost the wand at the Land of Untold Stories. When Zelena called Regina last night for help in calming down her daughter, the wand was there on a small coffee table. Regina did not press the issue and played dumb. It did helped that Zelena simply handed the wand to Regina and told her to keep it away for a few days. Regina decided to ask about this morning when she got Emma's text._

 _Can you use it to open the portal back up?" ask Emma while the two female dragon steps back._

" _Of course."_

 _Regina concentrates her focus on the spot where the portal open up. The wand is generating heat in her hand. She feels the energy coursing in the wand. She wait for the right moment for the wand to ignite the process. She then wave the wand. Power flow out of the wand and open up the portal._

 _Without warning, Regina collapse on her knees. She looks and saw that the power is still flowing out of the wand. The portal is taking more magic like it was a leech._

" _Regina!" said Emma as she runs up her side. Emma can see the sweat starting to form on the normally cool person. She can see that Regina is now straining herself in keeping the portal open._

" _I'm fine." said Regina. "Something is wrong with the portal. I can't keep it open for long."_

 _On instinct, Emma places her hand on Regina's shoulder. Emma could feel her power flowing through Regina and onto the wand. A relief look on Regina's face slowly forms._

" _Thanks. I have no idea what is happening but don't let go." said Regina. She slowly get up on her feet. "Looks like your power is keeping whatever powers that portal is on from kicking me in the face."_

" _We still need to find Matt." said Emma._

" _Well, I am open for suggestion." said Regina. "If you let go, I am pretty sure that I am going to be drained of all of my magic or I will have to close it."_

" _Screw it." said Lilly. Not waiting for a debate from anyone, Lilly runs into the portal and disappears._

" _LILLY!" yell out Emma._

 _Matt is on his hands and knees. He spits the blood out of his mouth. Matt closes his eyes and catches his breath. Matt knows that it is not a good sign if it hurts when he breathes. He open his eyes back and slowly get back on his feet._

 _The old man is a liar._

 _The man did look old. In fact, Matt thought for a moment that he might hurt the old man._

 _That moment did not last when Matt got hit._

 _Of course, the kick to the face, the hit against his stomach simply reinforce the fact that Matt is simply outmatch._

 _Again._

 _Matt stares at the old man, who is tossing a knife between his two hand like it was a football. He got lucky in the fact that the old man had not used the knife._

" _Are you alright?" ask Abraham.  
_ " _I am fine." answers Matt as he stare at the man preventing from crossing the narrow rope bridge._

" _I am sure that you are." said the Old Hunter._

" _Why are you doing all of this?"  
_ " _I need someone to take my place."_

" _Yeah. You keep saying that. It really does not mean anything."  
_ " _You seen what it is like out there."  
Matt keep his eyes on the Old Hunter._

" _The strong will survive and the weak will die. That is how it has been for eons. That will never changes. What has changed is the ruthlessness of the strong. They look at the weak like cattle. The weak is only there to sustain the strong. And it is only getting worse._

" _Love and hope is only there to keep the weak in line. The hope that a better tomorrow is coming. All of that sentiments makes the strong laugh._

" _There is no one out there to watch over them. No one is looking out for the weak. That is where we come in." explains Abraham._

 _Abraham put the knife inside the belt. Matt could see the knife from where he is at._

" _I don't have that much time left. I am old and I need someone to watch out for them. You can be that someone. You can be the one that keep the Upcoming BloodStorm from happening. Because when it arrives, no one is safe." said Abraham as he stretches his arms._

" _All you have to do is prove that you can cross this bridge." said the Old Hunter. "Unless you want to see people die like your sister."_

 _Matt rushes onto the rope bridge toward the Old Hunter in anger. Matt does not know how the old man knows about his sister and did not care. The Old Hunter laughs as Matt try to tackle the Old Hunter. What happen is something else. Matt hits the old man only to realize that it felt like he is hitting a brick wall. The Old Hunter grabs Matt by the neck and toss him back on the plateau._

" _You really got to do better than that."_

 _Matt lay there for a minute. He stands up and and looks at the Old Hunter._

" _Tell me about your sister." Abraham can tell that it will not be long. Matt is slowly walking. There is no power behind the stride. Abraham could hear the bones in the man's body making noise. Every hit that he delivered had a purpose._

 _Matt may not realize that he has been losing blood since the first hit. Matt is dying and it is just a matter of time._

" _Why?" ask Matt as he slowly walk onto the rope bridge._

" _I would like to know something about your sister."_

" _She is dead."_

" _Maybe…. But you have not let her go."_

 _Matt stops and leans on the rope attach to the post that held up the rope bridge. The Old Hunter can hear the heavy breathing from Matt. Matt looks like a boxer leaning on the ropes, struggling to keep fighting. He ended up looking down the canyon. Abraham is pretty sure that the height is inspiring some fear in the man's heart. It will not be long now._

" _Mom took me and my sister to some music festival in North Dakota." said Matt as he starts to tell the old man what popped into his mind. "The problem was the fact that she was not completely sober and we were too young to be there. We thought it might be fun. I changed my mind when we got there. Imagine being a kid at a festival that had too many people and loud noises. Imagine losing your own mom in crowd. Screaming for her and her forgetting about you. That was the worst part. Her forgetting that I was there._

" _I hated that day. One minute, I was holding her hand and the next, she was nowhere to be found. I started to cry. My sister grabbed me and took me out of there. I was like eight and my sister who I always thought was so flaky took me out of there. For that one day, she was the big sister that I alway hoped for." Matt struggles off the rope, only fling the body on the other rope holding the bridge. Abraham keeps his eyes on Matt._

" _Sound like you were was a crybaby." tease the old man as he watch Matt leaning his whole body like he was a rag doll.  
_ " _I was. The funny thing is that for the next few days, we had to rely on each other to get home. I mean, we were in the middle of nowhere and we did not want to wait for my mom. We were hundred miles away from home and we had no money."_

 _The Old Hunter watches as Matt struggle to stay on his feet. It did not help that the bridge is wobbly._

" _So, for the next few days, me and my sister start to find ways to get back home. For those few days, nothing else matter other than each other and home. Believe it or not, we did get back home. No one was the wiser. We learned something." said Matt as he struggle to stand on his two feet. He stare at the old man.  
_ " _That love conquers all?" jokes Abraham, hoping to get a reaction to the man that he had hoped would be his replacement.  
_ " _No….My sister and I learned how to pickpocket."_

 _The Old Hunter looks at Matt with some confusion. Matt show Abraham that he is holding a knife. Abraham look down at his belt and realize that he is missing his knife._

 _He looks at Matt, who cut one rope that was attached to the post. The Old Hunter rush to grab a rope as one side of the bridge start to let go. Abraham could see the bridge is no longer horizontal and trying to make itself vertical._

 _Abraham looks back at Matt, who is already holding on the only rope keeping the bridge from letting go of the plateau. Abraham's eyes widen as he watches Matt cut the last rope of the bridge._

 _As the bridge let go of the plateau, Abraham realize that the story was a distraction as Matt start to cut the ropes. If he had realize what Matt was doing, he would have stop him with ease._

 _Abraham know that it did not matter what happens now. The rope bridge is now swinging toward the other side of the cliff. The impact of the bridge hitting the other end will knock him unconscious, meaning he will let go and fall toward his death._

 _Matt knew he was not going to win but he was not going to let the old man wins._

 _Abraham smiles. Matt would have been a good hunter._


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9_

One year from now

As he drives his truck into town, Matt start to look at any oddities. The good thing about StoryBrooke is the fact that it is very similar to Mystic Falls. Everyone know something about everyone's business. It meant that secrets are never hard to keep in the dark. If there is something wrong, someone will tell someone.

Now that Matt starts to think about it, Mystic Falls was really not a good example to compare Storybrooke to. After all, Mystic Falls is still keeping the existence of vampires a secret.

But this was different. No one had said anything. Wherever the machine is, the builders were doing a good job of hiding its existence.

Matts starts to review the facts while he makes a left turn into the main street of Storybrooke. Making the machine would have made noise. There was no hiding that even if it was done in the evening. Everyone knew when Gestapo's had a big project to work on. This was no different from that. The question was where can someone build it?

Matt slams his brakes in front of the clock tower.

"Dude!" yells Lilly as she braces herself from the sudden stop.

He stares at it, ignoring Lilly. All he can do is smile.

"What?" ask Lilly.

"It's here." said Matt as he parks his truck on the curb.

Lilly gets out and start to scanning the area. She sees everyone going about their day. Lilly look at her watch and realizes it is lunchtime.

"Ok. Where?" ask Lilly as Matt gets out of his truck.

"It's on the roof above the library." said Matt as he points to the building. Lilly looks at the building. "With Belle taking care of her newborn, the library has not been open for a while. There would be no interruptions. The roof would be perfect to hide it with it being flat. It's perfect."

"I hate to play devil's advocate here. But that would be very obvious to do it here." said Lilly. "Besides, there is too many people in the area. I mean, it is lunchtime and everyone is out. Everyone would hear it being built. I am willing to bet you someone would have call us about some noise."

"It wasn't built there. It was built somewhere else. But the test run will be there."

"Why do something so stupid as that? I think every single "bad guy" used that clock tower as a liar or a hideout." said Lilly.

"Symbolism."

"What?"  
"Every magical objects has meaning behind it. Always. One of many things that I find annoying about magic. In the beginning, it meant something to the person who created the object."

"But we are not dealing with magic." points out Lilly.

"No, but we are dealing with a guy who would do anything in his power to make sure that this goes well." Matt stop and try to think of a better way to explain his line of thought. "You heard about some football players wearing the same exact socks on game day.

"Yeah?"

"I am betting you that he is doing the same thing. I am betting that he is using that clock tower as a good luck charm. And considering that this is a town filled with magic, it is not unreasonable to think like that. I bet you that he is on that roof." said Matt

"Ok, I'll take that bet. Twenty dollars." said Lilly.

"Deal."

"Alright. Let's see if you are right. Momma needs lunch money." said Lilly as she start to walk toward the library with Matt walking behind her.

 _Present_

 _Lilly turns into a dragon at the first moment she cross the portal. She did not know what is on the other side and did not care. After all, this is the first time that she is crossing a portal. She did not know what to expect on the other side._

 _Lilly Page also figured that her ticket home is only going to be open for a limited time. Regina did not look so hot when she opened up that portal. Even with Emma's help, Regina still looked weak._

 _It is the only reason that Lilly "volunteered" to do this. Lilly did not want to hear the argument on who would try to find the missing guy. After watching all of those reality shows about law enforcement taught Lilly anything, time was not on their sign in finding Matthew Donovan. To avoid all of that nonsense, Lilly simply ran into the portal and hoped the best._

 _As she crosses the portal, Lilly counts her blessings. The portal opens up in the middle of the sky. She extends her wings to start to glide. Once she stabilizes, Lilly starts to flap her wings._

 _She start to survey the new environment. There are plateaus everywhere. While she can see the other plateaus, the gaps between them are too far enough to be canyons. She could see grasses growing on the plateaus._

 _She looks at the world in wonder. The scene is breathtaking. For one moment, Lilly simply enjoy the fact that she is a dragon._

 _Lilly focuses back on the task on hand and starts to explores the new place. The place had a Southwestern cowboy feel. She is expecting to see cowboys in the distance. She flys into the canyon. Lilly then increases her speed to climb up in the sky._

 _She knows that she did not have time to marvel at the view or fly for enjoyment. She starts focus on the voice and smells of Matt._

 _Once she embraces being a dragon, Lilly found that her senses are stronger. She could smell what shampoos a person used in the morning. She could smell a hint of wood on Gestapo's body after making a clock. Lilly could smell what Grumpy ate for dinner. If she concentrated, she could hear Snow White talking to her husband about what to buy from the store._

 _Lilly hated that._

 _People did not always smell good and she did not appreciate it. Other people's conversation were not that interesting._

 _When she was talking to Matt Donovan, she could smell him. It was a distinguish smell and good. It is hard to describe it but he did not smell bad._

 _The key word was distinguish. Lilly can work with that in locating him._

 _So, she start to use all of her senses to find Matt._

 _It did not take long for her to lock onto him. As Lilly fly towards Matt, it did not take long for her to figure out why she had be able to find him. There are no other smells here. There is no smell of moisture in the air. Even with the grass on the plateaus, she could not smell it._

 _There are no sounds other than her wings flapping. She could not hear the air moving. No birds chirping. The more she thinks about it, it scares her. The beauty that her eyes sees is an illusion. She wishes she knew why._

 _Luckily for her, this places help in finding Matt. Lilly flies straight to Matt._

 _At a distance, she see two plateaus. They are connected to a rope bridge. When she see Matt on a bridge, Lilly could not help but be proud of herself. That thought shatters when she sees one end of the bridge start to swing toward the other end. For a second, Lilly did not understand what was happening. It did not matter when she sees Matt falling off the bridge. She know what she had to do._

 _Lilly flies straight to Matt._

 _She had hope that he would hang onto the bridge. Instead, he seem to have let go and is falling toward his death._

 _For Lilly, it did not matter._

 _Lilly had been training with her mother in various different scenarios. She has flown with grace. She has fallen from the sky and pull up. Her mother grabbed her in human form and dropped her from the sky to force Lilly to transform into a dragon. Her mother put her in such a training that Lilly has slept every night without waking up._

 _Catching someone fall toward his death did not seems like an impossible feat now._

 _She catches him like an eagle grabbing a mouse from the ground. She grabs him with her feet...dragon feet. Even thinking about it, it seems weird._

 _Lilly holds Matt and flies up toward the sky and pray that she can get to the portal before it closes._

 _Matt opens his eyes to the glaring light. He can smell a familiar smell of a hospital. After all, he had been in a hospital one time too many. Matt sees that he is lying in a hospital bed in his own room. There is the prerequisite bad wall picture, a small table beside him, and a television playing a Latin Soap Opera. He looks around to see Lilly Page curls in a ball with a blanket over her, sleeping peacefully._

 _For a moment, Matt simply thanks whoever is watching over him. Matt knows now what he has to do. It is the only thing that he has ever wanted to do._

" _It seems that you have a fan club." Matt's train of thought is stop by the voice. His heart start to races because he knows who it is. He look towards the source to see the old Hunter standing at the doorway._

 _Matt really thought that his trick would have taken the old man out. It was the only reason why he did something so stupid. He really wanted to protect the town from this mad man._

 _But there he is. The old man now has a sword in his hand to finish the job._

" _Don't say a word. We don't want to wake her up." advises Abraham._

 _Matt stare at the man, wondering what he is going to do._

" _Relax. I am not going to kill you." said Abraham. "You crossed the bridge. You get to live."_

 _The Old Hunter start walking toward Matt._

" _Not the way I hope, but you did cross. Nearly took me out too." said Abraham with a smile on his face as he continues to approach Matt's hospital bed._

 _Matt's mind races. He starts to wonder how he can defend himself against this man. His whole body feels sore. He did not want to admit that he could not take another round with the old man._

" _Congratulations." Abraham stand beside Matt's bed. He then places the sword against the wall besides Matt. "You are going to need this."_

 _Matt did not bother hiding his confusion over the "gift."_

 _"It is a sword that has been passed down by Hunters before me. When a new Hunter pass the test, they get the sword. It signify the passing of the torch." explains Abraham._

" _Who are you?" said Matt in a whisper._

" _My name is Abraham Van Helsing."_

 _Matt's eye widen._

" _I see you have heard of me. That is good." said Abraham. "Then I don't have to explain what has been my life mission for so many years."_

 _Matt looks at the man who has been connected to vampires. He wondering how he survived an encounter with the legendary vampire hunter._

" _My time is over. My story is done. I don't get to finish it the way I want. I, at least, can make sure that no one fall because of my failure. Thank you, Mr. Donovan. I know that you may not want this but only a fool would wants this. A smart one wouldn't, but would accept this responsibility."_

 _Abraham starts to walk toward at the doorway._

" _I am too old to continue the fight. You know that vampires do not age. That is their advantage over us. They can be at their prime forever while we ages."_

 _The old man shoulders lower like the weight is too much for him to say what is on mind._

" _I was able to stop the Blood Storm a long time ago. But I didn't finish the job. I failed." said Abraham as he stops at the doorway. He places his hand to steady himself._

" _Who?"  
_ " _He will bring his army with him and will conquer this world with ease. This world without magic is perfect for him. I can at least be assured that you will be here to try and stop him._

" _Who?" asks Matt one more time.  
_ " _The King of the vampires. The Impaler. The Scarlet Sword. Dracula." said Abraham. Matt let the information hang in the air. "He is coming and he will be here. Everything that you love is in danger. I hate to say it, but you are this world's only hope._

 _Abraham looks back at Matt with a smile._

" _Good luck, Mr. Donovan. I am rooting for you."_

 _Abraham leaves the room. Matt lay in his bed, wondering what he can do with this new bombshell in his life._


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

One year from now

"What's the plan?" ask Lilly as she approaches the library's door.

"Get everyone off the streets while I check it out." said Matt as he slowly approaches Lilly's side.

"You want me to do that while you might be walking into a potentially dangerous situation? You are a moran."  
"The more I am thinking about it, the more I know I am right. The problem is that you can be right too. If something goes wrong, people could get hurt. We need the streets to be at least clear while I go in."  
"No." said Lilly. "I watch your back and you watch mine. That is the deal. I don't care if you are my boss."

"Lilly. Your responsibility is to this town, not to me." said Matt. Lilly stares at Matt. Matt simply return her.

"Fine." concede Lilly. "Just be careful."

Lilly starts to run toward the corner across to street to get people back inside. Matt smiles on how much she has changed from being a rookie to being a full fledge law officer.

Matt tries to open it. It was locked. Matt reaches in his pocket to take out his keys. Regina, in her infinite wisdom, gave everyone in the sheriff's department a key to the library. She simply got tired of replacing the door after so many break ins.

Matt unlocks the door and walk in. He looks around at the library. It was quiet. Dust had made the library it's home now. The air had the stale smell mixed with that book smell. With Belle taking care of a newborn, no one really had been running the library.

The silence is interrupted by footsteps on the roof.

Keeping his focus on the task at hand, Matt slowly walk up the stairs that is located at the back of the library. Keeping his eye on what is in front of him. When he got to the top of the stair, Matt slowly opens the door that leads onto the roof.

From a distance, he can see the machine and a man standing beside it. He takes out his tranquilizer gun. In a town filled with magical beings, any gun seems useless. He still carries it. It is better that he use a gun as opposed to the sword that is by his side. That sword is a last resort.

As he slowly approaches, Matt can see the craftsmanship on the machine. It is exactly how it looks on the blueprint. It did look like Santa' sled with a bizarre circular back. The machine did have enough room for a chair and a console. In fact, it is a sled on magical steroids. Matt already knows that the primary builder of this legendary machine is the man standing beside the machine. He could see that the man is simply stoking the device like it is a pet.

In Storybrooke, no one is what they are. Everyone had a story. It might be minor as a soldier for Prince Charming's army or the candlestick maker for the Evil Queen. Matt hates to admit it, but he has a story. This man that is staring at the machine is no different.

But the man is not a soldier, candlestick maker or even a man who have seen too many vampires. The man is one of the major literary characters. He is the original Time Traveler. And he just built the Time Machine in Storybrooke.

Matt purposely makes some noise with his feet.

"Sheriff Donovan." said the Traveler as he looks up.

"Mr. Wells." The blueprint from the house had the name of H.G. Wells. That is what connected the dots in Matt's mind.  
"What are you doing here? Are you not supposed to be on vacation?" asks Mr. Wells. Matt knew the Traveler was not the real H. G. Wells. He died a long time ago. Where he got the name, Matt never asked.  
"It was a horrible vacation. I came back." answers Matt.

Matt met the man a few times during his morning run. The man had a cup of coffee and an umbrella with him and he walked around town. Always checking his watch with the clock. One day, Matt stopped from his run and started to talk to Mr. Wells. Never in their conversation did he reveal what he was. Just wanted to talk about the simplest things like love and what the future would be like.

"I am sorry." apologizes Mr. Wells.

"Don't worry about it. It is not your fault." said Matt. He looks at the famous Time Machine that is not a Delorean. "Mind telling me what you are planning to do?"

"If you are here, then you already know."  
"I rather hear it from you. I am just some guy from a small town. I don't know anything."

"You know, you are smarter than you look." said the Traveler. "I thought for sure you would have figured it out.

"Really." said Matt. He did have an idea, but that is beside the point. "Still, what are you doing?"

"What else? Going back to the future." The Traveler looks at Matt and smiles. Matt smiles at the lame joke.

"Why haven't you?" ask Matt as he put his gun back in the holster. Matt knows that he is not going to need it. Mr. Wells did not have anything on him. If he was going to the future, nothing he would have here would help him there.

The Traveler looks at the machine and place his hand on it. Matt could see the Traveler is using the machine to support him.

"I met the love of my life. I didn't realize it at the time. If I did, I would have tried harder to….." Mr. Wells simply stop talking as if completing the sentence would hurt him.

"Ever since then, I have been trying to get back." said the Traveler. Matt could see the tears slowly forming.

"What happened?" ask Matt.

"I cannot seem to go back."  
The Traveler seems to go off in the distance. Matt could hear Lilly walking up behind him.

"The first time I tried to go back, the machine placed me in 2099. Would you believe that it broke down? It took me a year to get the part replaced.

"Then I try again. Somehow, it malfunctioned and put me in the 1700's. Took me seven years to fix it at that time.

"You can guess what happened after I fixed it. It kept malfunctioning by sending me the wrong year and then breaking down. It was like I couldn't go back. All I wanted was to see my love and something always happened. It became a pattern. As a man of science, I refused to believe fate or destiny. This last time, the machine put me in that land where Hyde and the others lived. They called it the Land of Forgotten Stories. Still don't believe that he is Mr. Hyde. Somehow I found myself somewhere unknown and the machine completely broke down."

Matt looks at the man, waiting for him to finish the story.

"The land had nothing I need because I had to start all over again. It was not like I was replacing a part. I had to rebuild the time machine all over again from the start. So, when the opportunity to leave that place came up, I took it.

"Imagine my delight to see someplace similar to my time. Sure time has marched on, but I could see the foundation and that is what I knew. I knew that I can rebuild my machine in Storybrooke and get back my love." Matt slowly walks toward the Traveler.

"What does Hyde get out of this?"  
"What he wants is the machine." said the Traveler. "I think he has his own love that he wants to go back too."

Matt swallows and wonder if he was too late.

"You can relax." said the Traveler. "All he has is plans for a broken machine. In fact, the plans that he has was for the first machine I built, which by the way does not work at all. If he has any type of brain, he will realize that the plans are no good. This….

Mr. Wells pats the machine like it was a pet.

"This is the only working time machine in the world."

"So, why haven't you used it?" said Matt.

The Traveler looks at Matt.

"I am afraid." said the Traveler. "I am afraid that it will not work. I am afraid that it does not want to work. I know it sounds weird, but I am pretty sure that it is alive. It is the only thing that I can figure out on why it had never send me back to her.

The Traveler looks at Matt.

"I completed the machine last night. And I am afraid what it might do if I activated it."

"I am no hero but I am not a villain. I just want to see her again. That is all I want. I want my time with her again. Do you understand what I mean?" Tears is coming down the Traveler's face.

Matt start walking up to the man. Matt extends his hand.

"Yeah. I know what you mean." said Matt as he could see his fiance and his sister in his mind. "What you have told me, it sounds like something is preventing from going back. I hate to say it, but it has been giving you signs. I hate to say it, but it sounds like every time you try to go back, the signs are getting worse. You should listen to your gut. Beside, if something does happen, what do you think she would say?"

The Traveler looks at Matt and let out a sigh of acceptance and a small chuckle.

"I imagine that she would hit me if someone got hurt." said Mr. Wells. "I am going to need help to take it apart."

"I can do that." said Matt. The Traveler takes Matt's hand and shakes it.

Lilly Page let out a sigh of relief as she make the call to Emma.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Present

" _The Sword of Twenty Five Hunters. That is what it is called." said Regina as she places the open book beside the sword. Both items are laying on Snow White's dining room table. Everyone looks at the page. All doubts vanishes as they see the pictures and compare it to the actual sword._

 _Matthew Donovan realized something has changed after Abraham Van Helsing left the hospital that day. Within the day, all of his injuries were healed. Every broken bones, every bruises and every cuts were magically healed. It caught the eyes of one of the doctors, who kept insisting on running more test. Knowing full well, that this phenomena had to be a sign of something bigger, Matt declined the offer of getting more tests. When Emma Swann came in after getting a call from Lilly, Matt told her everything what had happened. Since she explained everything about the town, Matt felt that he should at least do the same. Since there was no magical tattoos on his body, Matt wondered what could have changed him._

 _Lilly did pointed out that the new thing in Matt's life: The sword._

 _After being released from the hospital, Emma took Matt back to an apartment, where a nice lady and her husband welcome him. Even on how young they looked, it did not suprised him that they said that they were Emma's parents. When they said that they were Snow White and Prince Charming, Matt tried to keep his composure. After all, they were Caroline Forbes' favorite fairy tale couple after Cinderella and her prince._

 _When Regina and her son came into carrying a big stack of books, Emma explained that if Matt felt that something had changed, they would help him find out what that was before he left this town._

 _After a couple hours of looking through various old books, Regina found the answer._

" _Wow." said David aka Prince Charming as he looks at the sword, resisting the urge to touch it._

" _How bad is it?" ask Snow White as she looks at the page._

" _For every magical being in Storybrooke, it is bad." said Regina._

" _What do you mean? asks Emma. Regina picks up the book._

" _Since this sword was created by Hephaestus, it can kill anything. And still that is not what makes this sword dangerous." said Regina as David takes a few steps away from the sword. "According to his book, selected hunters have actual powers."_

" _What kind of powers?" ask Prince Charming  
_ " _Powers they may need to hunt." said Regina. "We are not talking about hunters that go after deer. We are talking about hunters that are after witches, vampires, and other monsters. The catch is that the powers are not interchangeable. You can't have powers that could beat a werewolf one day and have powers to beat vampires the next day."_

" _Meaning that the hunters are specialists." said Snow White._

" _Exactly." confirms Regina._

" _How come we never heard of them? I mean if we knew about them, things might have been different." said Snow, wondering if she would have gotten one to deal with Regina when she was evil._

" _Because they don't exist everywhere. By everywhere, I mean dimensions." said Regina. "There is only twenty five of them and they only exist if there is a dire need in the place. For us, we live in a place that had knights, heroes and other good magical beings. Not to mentioned, we had the Dark One in the Enchanted Forest. Pretty sure, the Dark One may have something to do with that. This book..."_

 _Regina holds the book up in the air._

" _It is part of the Rumplestiltskin's private collection." said Regina._

" _So,what is the deal with the sword?" asks David trying to keeping the conversation focus._

" _Like I said, Hunters' powers are separated based on their speciality."_

" _One hunter deals with vampires, another hunter deal with witches." said Matt out loud._

" _Exactly. The catch is that the powers are energy. It has to be directed. It has to be maintain. This sword is what maintains that flow. As a result, the owner of the sword gets all of those powers. When Van Helsing gave the sword to Matt, he got those powers."_

" _Ok. There has to be a catch. After all, it's magic." points out Snow White._

" _According to this book, there are a couple. One of the catches is that the person has to use the sword if it is out." said Regina._

" _When you mean use…"_

" _They have to destroy the thing that they are fighting. Dragon, witch, vampire, immortal, god."_

" _Don't draw it out unless you are going to put them down." said Matt as he shakes his head. It made sense. Once Jeremy had his powers, he saw every vampires as a target as opposed to a person. It took a while for Jeremy to recognize a friendly vampire from a hostile one. Still, the obsession that he did have was intense._

" _Exactly. According to the book, you will get into a bloodlust. You will be compel to kill the thing that you are fighting. Lucky for you, you have all the powers of every type of hunter within you whether the sword is out or not. Super strength. Resistance to magic. Healing power. Those are just a few things that you are going to get. You might not have to worry about using that sword. But you were right. You are changing." explains Regina._

" _But, I can't practice with the sword, in case I have to use it." state Matt. "Sword fighting was not part of Mystic Fall high school curriculum._

" _Sword lessons wouldn't be a problem. I can teach you." said David to Matt. "I have a few swords that we can practice with and even use."_

" _Thanks." said Matt._

" _Beside you still have to get used to the powers." said Emma. "Take it from me. Going from normal to magical does take some getting used to. We can help you with that."_

" _Up to a point." said Regina. She looked at Matt. She would wait to tell him about the fact that he will never be able to move on after he died. Not to mentions that he is now stuck with powers and responsibilities of being a Hunter. That was another price for this magic. Regina simply did not want to spoil the moment._

" _Thank." said Matt as he looks around at the group. "I don't know what to say."_

" _Well, I would like you to say yes to Regina's job offer." said Snow White. "I kinda of like to see my husband more often."  
_ " _Thank." said David with smile._

" _I hate to say it, but we need the help. Even without the magical problems, we just got more people in our little town. No matter what, we are going to need actual help. Let's not forget, you haven't left this town like a bat out of hell after getting kidnapped and seeing a dragon. I would second that motion in hiring you here." said Emma._

" _You heard them. What do you say?" ask Regina._

 _Matt looks around at the group and smiles._

" _I do have one condition." said Matt._

 _Lilly is standing beside a bus stop bench as Matt slowly approaches the woman. Matt makes some noise to give her some warning that he is approaching her. Based on several hits on the arm that he received in the past, Matt always like to give some warning as opposed scaring someone._

" _What are you doing?" ask Matt as he approaches Lilly._

" _I am deciding whether to leave Storybrooke." said Lilly._

" _What?" The statement throws Matt off just based on what he had observed in the short time he has been in the town._

" _I'm not." reassure Lilly. "At least not today."_

" _So, why are you staring at the bench?"  
_ " _I come here to think. I know that I have to leave this town. I don't have a job. I don't have any friends here. I am not getting any younger. Sooner or later, I am going to have to leave and actually get my life straighten out. Let's be honest: I really don't belong here."  
_ " _What about your mom?" ask Matt._

" _Sooner or later, she will leave."_

" _That is depressing." comments Matt.  
_ " _Not like that. She is a dragon. We kinda have that wander lust. Right now, she is kinda of stuck in StoryBrooke. If it was not for me, she would have gone stir crazy or gone back to the Enchanted Forest. I don't want to keep her here longer than she has to. I want her to be happy."_

" _That is nice of you." said Matt as he take a seat on the bench._

" _For now, me being here is making her happy. Heck, it is making me happy." said Lilly as she joins Matt on the bench._

" _Be thankful for that...not all of us has a mom that wants to see her kids." said Matt. Lilly turn to see a familiar expression on his face._

" _So, what are you doing here?" ask Lilly, hoping the change in conversation would get that expression off his face. He smiles a little bit._

" _Honestly. I am here to offer you another reason to stay." said Matt._

" _I just met you. I am not going to marry you." jokes Lilly._

" _What?" Lilly smiles, hoping that he get the fact that she is joking with him._

" _Seriously, I don't know you enough to marry you. So put that ring away." Lilly couldn't help herself. Matt had that face that you had to mess with._

" _I am not proposing to you." said Matt, realizing that she is messing with him. "I am here to offer you a job."_

" _What?" Lilly did not want to see her reaction to that statement. That put a bigger smile on his face._

" _Yeah. I am taking the sheriff position."_

" _What the hell did Regina offer you to make you say yes?"_

" _I told her that I am going to need a deputy. If she is going to take the sheriff away to save the world or secret missions, I am going to need someone to watch my back while I watches the town. I said that I need you." explains Matt, hoping the explanation help.  
_ " _Why the hell do you want me?" Lilly stands up from the bench, not knowing if she should run away or hug him.  
_ " _If I am going to deal with crazed lunatics with magical powers again, I want to make sure that I have a big gun with me. I have been in the position when it was just me. It was not fun. In fact, I hated it. I need someone."  
_ " _No offense, but I am cursed. Everything I touch turn to crap." explains Lilly._

" _Who said?"  
_ " _Destiny." Lilly cannot believe that she was using that as a way to explain herself. It was too complicated to explain why she can't take this job.  
_ " _Screw destiny. You know how many times I had to hear that? Way too many times. Screw that crap." said Matt, not realizing that he is getting slightly red in the face. "Fate is not going to decide what we are going to be."_

" _Hit a nerve." asks Lilly._

" _You have no idea." said Matt. "Look. Here is the way I see it: One, you saved my butt. Two, you have some experience with law enforcement even if it is on the other side of things."_

" _Emma told you about my past." said a frustrated Lilly._

" _Just enough to try and talk me out of this."_

" _Why didn't it?"_

" _Because if the Evil Queen can be Mayor of this town, why can't you be in law enforcement?"_

" _Good point."_

" _Let's not forget the most important part. You are a bad ass scary dragon." said Matt with a smile. "Who will want to mess with a town that has a dragon?"_

 _Lilly looks at the man who will be sheriff. This was a bad idea in so many ways. She had no reason to say yes. Everything she has done, except her new relationship with mom, has gone to crap. There is no reason why this would not be the same._

 _She look directly at Matt, looking to see if he was joking._

" _Fine...I will take the job. If I am going to be a deputy, I am not working with William Charming, David Nolan or whatever he is calling himself. I am still angry at him and Snow White for kidnapping me." said Lilly.._

" _What?"_

" _You don't know?" ask Lilly.  
_ " _No."  
_ " _Buy me a drink and I will tell you the story."_

" _Deal." said Matt._

" _Besides, I will feel a little guilty if you died." said Lilly._

" _Just a little."  
_ " _Only a little. I don't know you that well."_

" _Alright, Let's get that drink. Just remember you can't sleep with me." said Matt as he stands up and start walking to the diner for a drink.  
_ " _Never in this lifetime." said Lilly, knowing that he is messing with her._

" _I don't believe you. I have noticed how you have been checking me out."_

" _I have not checked you out." said Lilly "Emma, on the other hand…"_

One year from now

"Imagine going back into time." said Lilly as she take another drink from her beer.

"I would love to see the Wright Brothers make that first flight" said David as he takes another drink from his coke.

"I would love to see the future." said Emma as she sips her beer. She had a taste of time travel when she was able to go back into time. Seeing her parents in the beginning stages of their lives gave her insight that she did not know that she needed at that time. The allure of time travel is still there.

"Time travel is definitely something we all would love to do, but there is a reason why it is not something to be done. Too many things can go wrong. It is still forbidden." said Regina as she twirl the wine in her glass.

"That is true." agrees Emma.

Lilly, Emma, David, Regina, and Matt are sitting at Granny's diner on the bar counter. The jukebox is blazing in the diner. For the five people sitting in the chair by the counter, they just want to have a drink to celebrate their small victory. For Matt and Prince Charming, coke are in their hands. The women had after hour drinks.

Matt is keeping his ear on the conversation as he observes as Tinkerbell walks over to the jukebox. She places a quarter in the box and hit two buttons. Matt smiles as he looks away from her. He recognizes the first two notes of the song that starts playing on the jukebox.

 _I see the bad moon arising_

 _I see trouble on the way_

 _I see earthquakes and lightnin'_

 _I see those bad times today_

Matt takes a deep breath, accept the fact that the relationship with Tinkerbell is not going anywhere and places his focus back on the conversation happening beside him. He did not notices that Tinkerbell take a quick glance to see him as she walks back to her table. She had been with Mother Superior having a late dinner.

"Still, the man did listen to reason. He going to help us take the machine apart safely." said Matt.

 _Don't go around tonight,_

 _Well it's bound to take your life,_

 _There's a bad moon on the rise_

"I still do not see how Hyde is able to convince these people to go along with his plans." said David.

"I don't know how and I don't care. We got bigger fish to worry about." said Regina.

"The Evil Queen." said Emma.  
Regina nods her head, remembering her shock in seeing her doppelganger.

"Have you guys made up a plan in dealing with that issue?" ask Matt.

"Not yet." said Emma. "I had to cancel tonight's meeting to help you move the machine. I guess now is a good time."

 _I hear hurricanes a blowing_

 _I know the end is coming soon_

 _I fear rivers over flowing_

 _I hear the voice of rage and ruin_

"Yesterday would have been a better time." said Matt.

"Two Regina...I don't think that was in my worst nightmares." said Emma as she take another drink.

"Hey!" said Regina.

"Trust me. We need something now. She could make life very bad around here. I saw it first hand." said Matt.

"Seriously."

"Oh yeah. The doppelganger I had to deal with was also a vampire, so everyone's lives was extra fun because of her." said Matt as he remembers Katherine Pierce.

 _Well don't go around tonight,_

 _Well it's bound to take your life,_

 _There's a bad moon on the rise, oh right_

"So, want to get a bottle and hammer the details out. Hook is securing the Jolly Rogers from Rumplestiltskin tonight." asks Emma to Regina.

"Considering that it could affect Henry in the worst way possible, yes." said Regina as she pick up her glass of wine and walks over to an empty booth.

Granny places a brown paper bag in front of Matt. Matt reach in his pocket and take out a twenty. Granny smiles and nod. Getting the late shift means no place is open after midnight. It means that he had to be prepare in eating in his car. Since he is already at Granny, Matt figures it is the smart play in getting lunch for later.

 _Hope you got your things together_

 _Hope you are quite prepared to die_

 _Looks like we're in for nasty weather_

 _One eye is taken for an eye_

"I am out. I got to get back to work." said Matt as he finishes up his soda. Matt gets up from his chair. David finishes up his drink and put down his money to pay his tab.

"I got to go too." said David. "Snow has papers to grade and wants to actually have time to do that tonight. Neal has been acting up."

"Hold on a minute, Dad. I got to ask you something." said Emma to David.

"Sure." said David as he follow his daughter to the booth that Regina is sitting at.

 _Well don't go around tonight,_

 _Well it's bound to take your life,_

 _There's a bad moon on the rise_

"Please don't leave me. I really don't want to deal with people by myself tonight." said Lilly.

"You can take my spot." said Matt as he takes the brown paper bag.

"No. Sorry. I am not that desperate." said Lilly as she finishes up her beer.

"You know you suck."

"Cry me a river." said Lilly as she gives Matt the universal response to his whine. Matt smile as he get up from chair.

"Tell them I am patrolling the town." said Matt as he lay down some bills to pay for Lilly's drinks. She smiles. He turns around and heads toward the door.

"Sure." nods Lilly as she move the money forward so that Granny can see it. "By the way, welcome back."

"Thanks." said Matt as he walks out the door.

 _Don't come around tonight,_

 _Well it's bound to take your life,_

 _There's a bad moon on the rise_

Lilly watches Matt. She can hear someone sitting behind her. She tenses up. Lilly really did not want to speak to her right now.

"So, should I worry about you eating me?" ask Tinkerbell as she motions to Granny for two more drinks.

"Nope." answer Lilly.

"Are you sure because you have been giving me death stares ever since you got here."  
"Trust me, Pixie. You will know if you have to worry about me. I will tell you." said Lilly as Granny put down a glass of beer in front of Lilly.

"So, what is your deal?"  
"You broke up with Matt. I am just simply fulfilling my best friend's duty." Lilly takes a drink from the new glass of beer.

"Really?"  
"Yeah. Choosing your job over Matt. Dumb move."  
"So, he told you." said Tinkerbell.

"Not everything. I know he didn't tell me everything but enough." reply Lilly.

"Look. We agree to this."  
"Really? I know your story. I know what you tried to do with Regina. Guess what? You are doing the same thing that she did." comments Lilly, knowing that Tinkerbell is a big advocate for true love.

Granny puts two drink in front of Tinkerbell.

"Lilly, I am a fairy. That is what I am. If I am not a fairy, what am I?"

"We'll never know." said Lilly. Tinkerbell pick up the two drinks.

"You just don't understand." said Tinkerbell as she walks away.

"Guess not." said Lilly.

"If it makes you feel better, I completely agree with you." said Granny. "I have seen those two together having lunch. There is something there. Tinkerbell is making a big mistake in not going out with Matt."

Lilly smiles. She shakes her head at the thought that Matt is right. It will take time for people to see her as Lilly the deputy.

Lilly's phone buzz. She reach in her pocket to take it out. When she hears the buzzing over everyone's phone. Lilly's heart skip.

Everyone's conversations stop.

She looks at the phone. After reading the text message, Lilly get off the chair and walks over to the diner's door and lock it. She looks outside through the door's window. She could see her partner with three other people.

"Emma!" yell out Lilly. "We got three baddies out there with Matt."

"Everyone!" yell out Emma. Everyone in the diner looks at Emma. Lilly could see the scared look at their faces. Regina is standing beside Emma while her father is standing on the other side of Emma. Granny take out the shotgun from behind the counter.

"This is not a drill. Grab what you need and approaches the center of the diner. Regina and I will take everyone out of the diner and to a safe place."

"We can help." said Mother Superior. Tinkerbell nods. Emma takes her phone and starts to text.

"Take them to my house. They will be safe there."said Regina to Mother Superior. She nods.

"I am locking the backdoor." said David as he walks away from her.

"We need to search every building in a five block radius once we get everyone out of the diner." said Regina. "Once clears, we put up a temporary force field around the area until it is over. Emma will tell you where to station yourself at."

"Understand." said Tinkerbell.

"I just texted Hook. He is securing the docks." said Emma.

"What can I do?" ask Lilly. She haven't learned any magic yet. She is feeling useless right now.

"Simple. Help your partner. He is out there alone." said Emma. Lilly looks at Emma and nod. "Take the back door."

Lilly start to walk toward the back door of the diner. She glances at Tinkerbell, who did look worry about Matt. Lilly simply nods to Tinkerbell.

"Lilly." said Regina. Lilly stops and looks at the Mayor. She toss something toward Lilly. She catch it with her right hand. She open up her hand to look at the object.

It was a necklace with a small medallion.

"Wear it." said Regina. "You are going to need it for what is out there."

Lilly nods and walk out to help her partner, not know what Regina is referring to.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Matt steps out of the diner with his dinner in his brown paper bag. He starts to walk toward the street, taking a peek in the brown bag. The smell of a hamburger wrapped in lettuce greets him. He closes the bag up. Matt hate to admit it, but he may have to eat it right now before it gets cold.

A smile emerges on his face as he approaches the street. Today was a good day. He parked the sheriff car across the street by the suit tailor store. Even though he knows that the street would not have a car flying down the street, Matt still stops at the curb.

The streetlight above him flickers.

Matt looks up at the streetlight. The advantage of living in a town that was created by magic that very few things breaks down. The street light should not flicker. He places his focus back on the street before he cross. Unfortunately, he see two men standing in the middle of the street.

Matt lets out a sigh. Matt really hope that it would never come to this. In fact, he had actually pray that it wouldn't happen. He did not want to see them again. Yet, they are standing in the middle of the street side by side like they are in an old western movie. The one thing that he hated is the fact that he is not going to eat that hamburger after all.

"Let me guess, it was all a trick." said Matt as he places the brown paper bag on the sidewalk while keeping his eyes on the two men that should not be here.

"Yep." said Damon with a evil smirk on his face.

"You two never left Boston." said Matt as he reaches in his pocket and takes out his phone.

"Correct." said Enzo, who had a stern look on his face.

"All those maps on that table showing a route from Boston to Florida. It was supposed to throw Bonnie and the rest off." Matt text 9-1-1-* on the cell and select town. He press the send button as he places the phone down on the sidewalk. The fact that they allow him to text meant they did not care what he did.

"And people said you were not a good sheriff. Here you are proving them wrong." said Damon. Matt could hear him mocking him.

"You saw me and follow me." Matt walks out in the middle of the street, maintain a distance from the two vampires, knowing full well that this situation is bad in a very epic way.

"Damon couldn't help himself. He said that it has been a long time since he killed a Donovan." said Enzo.

Matt knows what they were trying to do: Intimidation. After all, they were two murderous vampires on a killing spree and no one seems to have found a way to stop them.

"So, what is the plan?" ask Matt as he keeps his focus on both vampires, knowing full well that the third party that started all of this is near by. He places his right hand on his gun and unstrap it.

"Pretty basic. We kill you and we kill the town. At least half of them." said Enzo.

"You really know how to pick them." said Damon as if he was congratulating Matt. "It is like Mystic Fall except remote. We barely found this place. If it was not for that guy we met in the diner, we would never have found this place. Hell, I am pretty sure no one knows that this place even exists. No one will find us here until it is too late."

"There is no cavalry coming to save you or this two star town." said Enzo.

"Wow. You two have this all plan out." said Matt.

"Haven't you heard? We got some practice." said Enzo.

The street light flicker again. Matt notices that the street lights further down the street were out. Matt figured that the lights behind him are also going out. He could hear footsteps behind him. It is faint like it is sneaking up on Matt.

"You got one problem." said Matt as he places his hand on the sword that is on his left side.

"What would that be?" as Damon.

"Me."

Both vampires chuckles at the statement.

"I don't really care about you. I don't care if you turn around and leave. I don't care if you stay. But if you stay and do what I think you are going to do, I will have to kill you." explains Matt knowing that it will make the vampires laugh.

"I am not Bonnie." continues Matt. "I am not here to save you."

"Who said that we can be saved?" said Damon. "There is no saving us."

Both of them simply stare at Matt.

"You still don't get it." said Matt.

"Educates us, Matty. What don't we get?" ask Enzo.

"I see Damon, the man who put my sister on the road to her death because he was simply bored. And I see you, Enzo, a vampire who I couldn't care less. I am not going to lose any sleep in killing you two. As for the old lady that is trying to sneak up behind me, I definitely wouldn't lose any sleep when I take her head off."

Both vampires frown. Matt could hear the footsteps behind simply stop moving. She did hear that.

The thing behind him had to be the reason on why the vampires were able to get past the barrier. It meant that she is powerful. It also eliminated how many things that thing can be. Matt had to smile. He know what it is.

For a full year, Matt had been looking in the books in Regina's collections. Unlike the Armory's library, Regina's library had books that would make any archaeologist envious. He had hope that he might find something about the vault monster that was locked away. The books that he read were not happy tales. They were the dark kind that the world wants to forget about. It had stories of monsters that should be forgotten.

"You knew that she is behind you?" ask Damon.  
"I know that she has been sapping all the power from the street lights because she likes frighten her victims before she kills them. I know that she thinks that I fit a particular category. I know why you two are alive while everyone else she has ever encountered has died. I know what she is."

"Doesn't mean anything." said Damon. "When the piper comes to collect, you will pay that price one way or another.  
"You're right. That doesn't mean anything. Knowing how to kill her, that means something."  
"That is a load of crap." said Damon.

Matt simply makes a face as if he did not care.

"You're bluffing." said Enzo.

"Maybe, but tell the demigod to stop sneaking up on me unless she wants to lose that hand of her." said Matt as he can feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Both vampires look at Matt. Matt did not care. He can hear the monster from the vault sneak away from Matt.

Matt knows what is behind him. He knows what the demigod did to Damon and Enzo. He know how the demigod inflicts madness on people. It drains all good sense out of someone and controls them. It was the reason why everyone in the Armory died by bashing their heads against the wall. It was the reason why Damon and Enzo is on a killing spree. They were vampires. They can turned their humanity off only leaving their dark heart beating. They did not have to have the madness consume them.

Of course, there is the issue of mind control. Matt can feel her trying to reach inside his mind.

"You know what. I am tired of talking to you and she is tired of hearing you talk" said Damon as his eye grew black with the vein coming out.

"So am I." said Enzo as he open his mouth to reveal his fang. "Sorry, Matty."

Matt places a firm grip on the sword, knowing full well that if he take the sword out, he had to use it on all three bloody monsters. He also know that he is not going to live. If Damon and Enzo do not kill him, he know that the demigod behind him will get him. The street light flicker more. If he goes after the demigod, the vampires will get him. He had to pick which one he had to kill. He didn't have much time. The three murderous individuals were waiting for the street lights to go out to strike.

"Can anyone join this party?" said Lilly as she walks behind the two vampires. Both vampires place their attention on Lilly.

"Lilly! What are you doing here?" yells Matt.

"You're my partner." said Lilly as she start loosing up her arms. "I can't have you dying on me."

"Lilly!" Matt did not like this. She is not suppose to be here.

"Seriously. I don't want to take another late night shift. You will have to simply deal with the fact that once we are done with this problem, you are stuck in the sheriff car tonight."

"So, Matt has a new partner." said Damon. He slowly positioned his body to face Lilly. "You heard what happen to his last partner."  
"Penny. I heard about that." said Lilly as she closes her eyes for a second to adjust it. "Matt's my best friend. I know all the bad and all the good."

Lilly opens her eyes and reveals her gold eyes. Both vampires did not flinch when they see this. Enzo quickly places his whole body to focus on Lilly. Their focus was no longer on Matt, but on Lilly.

In their eyes, she is a new plaything that they can use to torture the boy from Mystic Falls.

The streetlight flicking increases.

Matt keeps his hand on the sword and keep his ear focus on the demigod that is slowly moving toward him

"Leave. If you don't, we will have to kill you." said Enzo.

"You can try." said Lilly as she allows her skin to change in her dragon skin.

"What the hell?" said Damon. Both vampires look at Lilly, wondering who she really was.

The practice that her mother put her through was worth it. She mastered the change from human into dragon. She discovered that she control the changes. She can get some of the benefits of being a dragon without going full fledged dragon.

"Matt, I'll take these two. You will be too busy with that thing behind you." said Lilly. She could feel the medallion that she is wearing heating up. Whatever that thing is behind Matt is trying to do something to Lilly.

"Are you sure?" ask Matt as he slowly turn to faces the demigod.

"Yeah." said Lilly as she make her hand light up with flame. Both vampires look at her hand.

Matt has place his focus on the demigod. Matt does not see the beautiful woman in front of him, wearing a white dress. He sees her for what she is. All he see is a decaying body in front of him. The smell from her is overpowering. Matt can smell the blood of her past victims that the world will not miss. His hands firmly wrap itself around the sword. His eyes is slowly adjust to the darkness. He can see the thing that was locked up in a vault.

"Nice trick." said Damon. "Nothing we haven't seen before."

"Nothing we haven't dealt with." said Enzo.

"What's the play, Matt?" yell Lilly as she ignore the taunts from the vampire. She takes a breath to allow her mood to change. Her mocking tone of the situation did hide her concern over her partner. Now, she allow her dragon's instinct to grab a hold of her. It wants to hurt the two vampires.

"Honestly." said Matt as he take out his sword. He can feel the blood lust overwhelm his body. His body wants to rush over to the vampire and slash their heads off. He wants to shove his sword into Lilly's body. He want to chop the demigod into piece and burn the body.

Matt take deep breath to place his full focus on not what is behind him, but what is in front of him: A old demigod that is essentially a psychic vampire that has a burning rage.

"There is nothing to save. They died when they went into that vault. They're just dead people that forgotten they are already dead." said Matt.

The flickering street light finally gives out and goes dark, leaving the five individuals to fight for the town's survival.

THE END


End file.
